Gas diffuser with indefinite life and mixed bubble size capacity
AssigneeWilfley Weber, Inc.
InventorRichard B. Weber
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A diffuser for dispersing gas into a body of liquid that may contain suspended solids. Under ordinary clogging conditions, the diffuser will remain operative over an indefinite period of time by reason of large gas outlet openings at the bottom of the gas plenum chamber. In addition, it can be employed for a good portion of that time to disperse a substantial flow of coarse bubbles and fine bubbles, in a desired combination, simultaneously from a single gas plenum. Careful selection of the permeability and area of a top porous wall of a gas plenum chamber, together with proper selection of the level, size and number of coarse bubble gas outlet openings in the side walls of the plenum chamber, achieve the second feature.
Claims12
A gas diffuser for diffusing gas into a body of receiving liquid in which the diffuser is submerged, which comprises a chamber that forms a gas plenum, said chamber including:
- (a) a top wall at least a substantial portion of which is formed of a porous material having a stabilized wet permeability of a magnitude to cause the production of fine gas bubbles when gas is introduced under a first predetermined pressure into said gas plenum chamber and exits through said porous top wall;
- (b) side walls defining, at a predetermined level below said top wall, a plurality of gas outlet openings of a first predetermined, fixed size to produce coarse gas bubbles when gas is introduced under a second, higher predetermined pressure into said gas plenum chamber and exits through said gas outlet openings, while continuing at all times to exit simultaneously through said porous top wall and through said gas outlet openings in said side walls, said gas outlet openings being unobstructed at all times except for any deposit that may be built up in said openings during use of said diffuser, said unobstructed gas outlet openings in the side walls of said plenum chamber being substantially equally spaced around the perimeter of the chamber;
- and
- (c) a gas inlet opening,
- whereby gas introduced under said first predetermined pressure into said gas inlet opening:
- will fill the upper portion of said gas plenum and exit through said porous top wall of the plenum chamber to form a rising central cylindrical column of densely packed fine gas bubbles in the body of receiving liquid in which the diffuser is submerged, and
- if the pressure at which the gas is maintained in said plenum is increased to said second predetermined figure, will fill said plenum chamber down to said predetermined level of said plurality of coarse bubble outlet openings and exit through said openings to form a rising outer, hollow, cylindrical sheath of coarse gas bubbles in the body of receiving liquid in which the diffuser is submerged, while said column of fine gas bubbles continues to be discharged through said porous top wall of the plenum chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.