Industrial waste water treatment process
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsDavid Glenn Hutton, Francis Leonard Robertaccio
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Industrial waste water, containing impurities which poison or otherwise inhibit bacterial forms employed in biological treatment of waste water, is purified by a process which comprises subjecting the waste water to a biological treatment process in the presence of activated carbon or fuller's earth. A gas containing molecular oxygen is distributed within the liquid mixture during treatment to provide oxidation means. Despite the presence of the poisonous or inhibiting impurities, the process efficiently reduces the biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total organic content of the waste water in an unusually rapid manner, and removes material not normally removed by the biological treatment alone.
Claims8
A process for continuously purifying industrial waste water containing impurities which inhibit or poison bacterial forms employed in biological treatment of waste water, said process consisting of:
- A. contacting in a treatment zone a mixture of
- 1. industrial waste water which has a pH of between about 4 and 11 and which optionally has been subjected to primary treatment to remove solids,
- 2. biologically active solids in an amount sufficient to provide a total suspended solids content of the mixture of between about 10 and 50,000 parts per million, and
- 3. activated carbon added at a rate sufficient to supply between about 4 and about 1,000 square meters of surface area of carbon for every liter of waste water supplied to the treatment zone said carbon having a surface area of at least 100 square meters per gram and a particle size such that it will pass through a 200 mesh per inch sieve,
- B. mixing a gas containing molecule oxygen through the mixture for a period of at least about 2 hours, and
- C. removing the mixture from the treatment zone.
A process for continuously purifying industrial waste water, said process consisting of:
- A. contacting in a treatment zone a mixture of
- 1. industrial waste water which has a pH between about 4 and 11 and which optionally has been subjected to primary treatment to remove solids,
- 2. activated sludge in an amount sufficient to provide a total solids content of the mixture between about 300 and 50,000 parts per million and
- 3. activated carbon added at a rate sufficient to supply between about 4 and about 100 square meters of surface area of carbon for every liter of waste water supplied to the treatment zone said carbon having a surface area of at least 100 square meters per gram and a particle size such that it will pass through a 200 mesh per inch sieve,
- B. mixing a gas containing molecular oxygen through the mixture for a period of at least about 2 hours, and
- C. removing the mixture from the treatment zone and separating solids from the supernatant water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.