KR20170012612A

KR20170012612A - Apparatus for automatically measuring microorganism

Info

Publication number: KR20170012612A
Application number: KR1020150102754A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 문현주; 전형근; 박혜진; 최규성
Original assignee: (주) 테크로스
Priority date: 2015-07-21
Filing date: 2015-07-21
Publication date: 2017-02-03

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus, and more particularly, to a microbial automatic measuring apparatus comprising: a sampling unit provided with a filter for introducing a ballast water to filter microorganisms; A microorganism storage part connected to a discharge part of the sampling part and storing the microorganisms filtered and concentrated by the filter; A fixed amount discharge unit for discharging a predetermined amount of microorganisms from the microorganism storage unit; And a microorganism detection unit having an image photographing device for measuring the microorganisms discharged from the fixed amount discharge unit. Accordingly, there is an effect of providing a quick and accurate microbial flora diagnosis apparatus applicable to ship equilibrium water management.

Description

Apparatus for automatically measuring microorganism

The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically measuring microorganisms. And more particularly, to an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus capable of quickly and accurately measuring microorganisms so that the apparatus can be applied to a ship ballast water treatment apparatus.

In general, ship ballast water or ballast water is a ballast water tank installed in a ship so that the ship can maintain its balance when the cargo is unloaded from the ship or when the cargo is loaded with a very small amount of cargo. It is the sea water filling.

These ship equilibria are inhabited by various microorganisms. If they are discharged from other areas without any treatment, there is a high possibility of causing serious marine pollution and ecosystem destruction.

Accordingly, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) concluded an international agreement to ship the necessary equipments for disinfection and purification of ship ballast water.

Since the ship's ballast water treatment system mounted on the ship must be operated after having been subjected to the land test and shipboard test according to the standards of IMO and then operated, the ballast water treated by the ship ballast water treatment system must be operated by the International Maritime Organization A system is required to monitor whether the emission standards meet the emission standards stipulated in the above.

However, in order to monitor the concentration of biological matter discharged from ship equilibrium water, there is a problem that it takes a lot of time because the sample is collected and taken back to the analyzer to measure the biological concentration.

In addition, there is a problem that an analysis error may occur depending on the person performing the biosynthetic discrimination measurement and the bio-counting test to determine whether or not the standard of the ship equilibrium water treatment apparatus meets the standard, so that more objective, accurate, The development of an automatic analyzer capable of checking

It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus capable of automatically measuring microorganisms quickly, accurately and easily.

In order to accomplish the above object, the automatic apparatus for measuring microorganisms according to the present invention, which is devised to achieve the above object, comprises: a sampling unit having a filter for introducing the ballast water and filtering out microorganisms; A microorganism storage part connected to a discharge part of the sampling part and storing the microorganisms filtered and concentrated by the filter; A fixed amount discharge unit for discharging a predetermined amount of microorganisms from the microorganism storage unit; And a microorganism detection unit having an image photographing device for measuring microorganisms discharged from the fixed amount discharging unit.

According to the present invention, it is possible to apply the present invention to a ship ballast water treatment apparatus by discharging microorganisms in a fixed amount and measuring microorganisms quickly and accurately.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect of reducing the measurement error by restricting the movement of the microorganism to be measured.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an effect of providing a more reliable microorganism longevity determining device through data accumulation by automatically measuring data.

1 is a block diagram showing an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 illustrates a counting chamber included in an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to designate the same or similar components throughout the drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. In addition, the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below, but it is needless to say that the technical idea of the present invention is not limited thereto and can be variously modified by those skilled in the art.

1 is a block diagram showing an automatic microorganism measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, an apparatus for automatically measuring microorganisms according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a sampling unit 100 for sampling microorganisms contained in ship equilibrium water, a microorganism detection unit 300 for measuring sampled microorganisms .

The ship ballast water treatment system is a device for disinfecting ship ballast water flowing into a ship. It can be used in various ways such as electrolysis or injection of chemicals into ballast water flowing during ballasting, .

The ballast water thus treated flows into and is stored in the ballast tank 11 and is discharged to the outside of the ship through the discharge pipe 13 at the time of deballasting.

In order to do this, it is necessary to determine whether the ballast water to be discharged conforms to the emission standards stipulated by the International Maritime Organization. For this purpose, the inflow pipe 123 branched from the discharge pipe 13 is automatically measured by the automatic microorganism measurement Device.

The flow pipe 123 is provided with a flow meter 127 and an inlet valve 121 so that the flow rate of the incoming ballast water can be adjusted.

The sampling unit 100 includes a case 101 and a funnel-shaped filter 103 for filtering microorganisms contained in the ballast water introduced from the inflow pipe 123.

Here, the filter 103 may be composed of a network having a thin eye.

The lid 102 may be installed at the upper end of the filter 103, that is, the funnel-shaped opening. The lid 102 may be composed of a net having thick eyes rather than the filter 103.

The filter 103 is provided at its lower end with a rotary shaft 106 at one side thereof and an open / close plate 105 hinged to the rotary shaft 106.

The opening and closing plate 105 may be manually opened or closed, and may be configured to be automatically opened and closed by a control unit when it is configured to rotate the rotary shaft 106 through the transmission means. The control unit may be configured to be opened and closed at predetermined intervals, or may be configured to open and close the weight sensor at a predetermined weight or more by adding a weight sensor.

A water level sensor 107 for measuring the water level of the ship ballast water flowing into the sampling unit 100 is installed on the side surface of the case 101.

A drain pipe 113 for discharging the inflow ballast water is connected to the lower end of the case 101 and an on-off valve 111 is provided on the drain pipe 113. When the on-off valve 111 is opened, the ballast water is discharged to the drain tank 115 through the drain pipe 113. Thus, the water level inside the sampling unit 100 can be adjusted through the water level sensor 107 and the opening / closing valve 111. That is, a control unit (not shown) for controlling the flow rate of the water flowing into the sampling unit 100 by controlling the inlet valve 121 according to the level information measured by the water level sensor 107 or opening / closing the drain valve 111 So that it is possible to automatically control to maintain a predetermined water level.

On the other hand, a discharge portion for discharging the sampled microorganisms is formed on the lower side of the case 101.

The microorganism storage part 210 is connected to the discharge part of the sampling part 100, and the microorganism filtered by the filter 103 is concentrated and stored. For this, the microorganism storage unit 210 may be formed in a cylindrical shape having a space formed therein, and the lower end may be inclined toward the outlet direction so that the concentrated microorganisms collect toward the outlet by gravity.

The fixed-quantity discharging unit 220 functions to discharge the microorganisms from the microorganism storage unit 210 by generating a suction pressure. The fixed-quantity discharging pump using hydraulic pressure or electricity can be used. Here, the quantitative discharging unit 220 delivers the concentrated microorganisms to the microorganism detecting unit 300 at a capacity set for one analysis. The set volume is preferably adjusted within the range of 5 ml to 40 ml.

The microorganism detection unit 300 is installed on the upper side of the photographing apparatus 310 to measure the microorganisms discharged from the fixed amount discharging unit 220 and has a counting chamber 320 through which the microorganisms to be measured are introduced.

In this case, the image capturing apparatus 310 can adjust the height of the separation from the upper side of the counting chamber into which the concentrated treatment water flows, including a driving unit (not shown), so as to be movable up and down according to the measurement environment. And can be moved horizontally along the inflow groove by a driving unit (not shown).

The counting chamber 320 is formed with an inflow groove into which microorganisms to be measured are introduced. FIG. 2 illustrates embodiments of the counting chamber 320 provided in the automatic microorganism measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The inlet groove of the counting chamber 320 shown in FIG. 2 performs a function of reducing the measurement error by limiting the movement of the microorganism to be measured in order to increase the accuracy of the analysis. In FIG. 2, an engraved groove having an "e" shape or a "G" shape has been disclosed. However, this is an embodiment, and it is formed as a narrow engraved groove which is bent at least once and extended so as not to be branched in the middle between both ends .

The inflow groove thus formed is advantageous in that microorganisms can be observed quickly because the path of the photographing apparatus 300 moving along the inflow groove is not overlapped.

1, a water level sensor 325 is installed on a side surface of the counting chamber 320, and a discharge valve 330 for discharging the treated water is provided at one side of the water level sensor 325 to the counting chamber 320 So that the water level of the concentrated water containing the microorganisms can be adjusted. The level measurement value measured by the level sensor 325 may be transmitted to a control unit (not shown), and if necessary, the fixed amount discharge unit 220 may be operated so that additional concentrated treatment water may be introduced into the inlet channel.

The concentrated water introduced into the counting chamber 320 flows into the drain tank 115 through the discharge pipe after completion of the analysis once. In the repeated analysis work for increasing the reliability of the resultant value, And then flows into the inlet groove of the chamber 320 repeatedly.

The control unit (not shown) receives the result of determination of the life and death of the organism measured by the microorganism detection unit 300 and determines whether the result of the ballast water sterilization process satisfies the IMO standard. If the criterion is satisfied, a de-balishing operation is performed to discharge the treated water to the coastal watershed. If the criterion is unsatisfactory, the discharge of treated water is stopped and a reprocessing process for sterilizing microorganisms is performed.

The result of the biosyther discrimination detected by the microorganism detecting unit 300 can be used by the operator to count the number of microorganisms by observing the image photographed by the photographing apparatus 310 directly on the monitor, (Not shown) or an image analyzer (not shown), and the like. When the bio-counting operation is automatically performed as described above, data can be automatically accumulated by measuring the data, thereby enabling more reliable determination of the life and death.

The operation of the apparatus for measuring microorganisms according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

First, the vessel performs a de-balishing operation in which the ballast water is discharged from the ballast tank 11. At this time, some of the ballast water is introduced into the sampling unit 100 in order to discriminate the life and death of the microorganisms contained in the discharge vessel equilibrium water.

The inflow volume of the ballast water is controlled by the water level sensor 107 and the microorganisms are filtered through the filter 103.

The filtered microorganisms are concentrated and stored in the microorganism storage unit 210 located below the sampling unit 100 and then discharged to the microorganism detection unit 300 through the fixed amount discharge unit 220 by a predetermined volume.

When the treated water flows into the inflow groove formed in the counting chamber 320 of the microorganism detecting unit 300, whether the microorganism has died or not is determined through the photographing unit 310. These judgments are based on morphological characteristics and life and death of living organisms.

Thereafter, if the discrimination value meets the IMO standard, the de-balishing operation is continued. If the discrimination value does not meet the IMO standard, the de-balishing operation is interrupted and the process number is again sterilized.

As described above, the automatic microorganism measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the water level adjusting unit and the quantitative deriving unit and is configured to automatically measure the microorganisms, thereby delivering an appropriate amount of sampling water, And to supply ship equipments that can meet the IMO emission standards.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, substitutions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. will be. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention and the accompanying drawings are intended to illustrate and not to limit the technical spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments and the accompanying drawings . The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

100: Sampling unit 101: Case
103: filter 105: open / close plate
107, 325: water level sensor 115: drain tank
210: Microorganism storage part 220: Quantitative discharge part
300: Microorganism detection unit 310:
320: Counting chamber

Claims

A sampling unit provided with a filter for introducing the ballast water and filtering the microorganisms;
A microorganism storage part connected to a discharge part of the sampling part and storing the microorganisms filtered and concentrated by the filter;
A fixed amount discharge unit for discharging a predetermined amount of microorganisms from the microorganism storage unit; And
And a microorganism detecting unit having an image photographing device for measuring the microorganisms discharged from the fixed amount discharging unit.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the microorganism detecting unit includes a counting chamber in which the photographing machine is installed on an upper side and an inflow groove is formed on a lower side to inflow the microorganisms to be measured,
Wherein the image capturing apparatus is configured to be movable up and down, and includes a driving unit to be horizontally moved along the inflow groove.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the inflow groove is bent and extended at least once, and is formed so as not to be branched in the middle between both end portions.

The method of claim 3,
Wherein the inflow grooves have an "e" shape or a "G" shape.

The method according to claim 1,
The automatic microorganism measuring device comprises:
And a water level sensor configured to measure a water level of the influent water to adjust the water level of the influent water to the sampling unit and the microorganism detection unit, and a drain valve to discharge inflow water.

The method of claim 5,
Wherein the microorganism automatic measuring device further comprises an opening / closing part for opening / closing the lower end of the filter.

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
And a control unit for controlling the flow rate of the water flowing into the sampling unit or opening / closing the discharge valve based on the level information measured by the water level sensor.

The method of claim 7,
Wherein the controller determines whether or not to perform a dibaling operation for discharging the ballast water to the outside of the vessel in accordance with the measurement result of the microorganism detection unit.