WO2009065203A2

WO2009065203A2 - Effluents treatment natural system

Info

Publication number: WO2009065203A2
Application number: PCT/BR2008/000355
Authority: WO
Inventors: Galdino Santana De Limas
Original assignee: Galdino Santana De Limas
Priority date: 2007-11-23
Filing date: 2008-11-21
Publication date: 2009-05-28
Also published as: WO2009065203A3; BRPI0704292B1; BRPI0704292A2

Abstract

The present invention relates to sanitation technical field more specifically to effluents treatment natural system using bamboos (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides besides other species) to clean sewers and waters contaminated by residues from residences, industries and agriculture among others specially to lesser or practically turning to level zero the water level contamination by using nitrate and/or nitrite. The system even count on improvements that give the water ideal and established levels for human usage.

Description

EFFLUENTS TREATMENT NATURAL SYSTEM FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to sanitation technical field more specifically to effluents treatment natural system using bamboos (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides besides other species) to clean sewers and waters contaminated by residues from residences, industries and agriculture among others specially to lesser or practically turning to level zero the water level contamination by using nitrate and/or nitrite. The system even count on improvements giving the water ideal and established levels for human usage. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Now a day there are a lot of facts, newspaper reports, theses and documents showing the disordered enlargement of effluents and residues sent to rivers, sources, lakes, dams, weirs and also water tables.

Although not being the only responsible agent by the loss of quality of the water the agriculture, direct or indirectly, contributes for the degradation of the sources. This may occur by contamination of the water-bearing soils by organic or inorganic substances, naturals or synthetics or either by biological agents. Fully employed but sometimes in a wrong way the application of pesticides, fertilizers, and/or residues from intensive animal breeding are considered as the main activities related to the loss of quality of the water in the country side zone. One of the major contamination problems restricts to some micro nourishing and, mainly, to the micro nourishing nitrogen and phosphorus.

Among several forms of nitrogen present in the soil the ammonia (NH3) and, specially, the nitrate (NO3-) may be the cause of the loss of quality of the water. Although being the existence of ammonia in the water be highly lethal to fishes because of its toxicity to this fauna group, when originated from the soil or from fertilizers this molecule tends to be converted into ammonium (NH4+) which by its turn is converted into nitrate through microbiological processes.

Therefore, the nitrate is the main form of nitrogen associated to water contamination by farming and cattle raising activities and by decomposition of human or animal feces. This occurs due the nitrate anion, characterized by being weekly held in the soil, and tends to stay more into a solution, mainly on the soil superficial layers where the organic substance enlarges the electronegative character of the soil particles (rejecting the nitrate). In the soil solution the nitrate is more inclined to the lixiviation process and along the time there may have a considerable enlargement in the quantity of nitrates in the deep waters.

The intensity of the contamination process depends mainly on the quantities of nitrate present or added to the soil, on the soil permeability, on climate conditions (rate of rain) and handling irrigation and on the depth of the water table. One should also point up that the increase of the quantity of nitrate in the water indicates a potential risk for the presence of other undesirable substances such as a lot of synthetic molecules from pesticides which probably behave in the same way as nitrate.

In the same way as occurs to phosphorus the excessive enrichment of nitrate in the superficial waters turns the sources eutrophic. There may also have problem related to animal health once ruminants (bovines and ovine) and some monogastric (equine) have in their digestive system bacteria that transform nitrate into nitrite poisoning them. Although adult people can take in relatively high quantities of nitrate through foods and water and excrete them through urine without major prejudicial consequences to their health, babies younger than six months old may be poisoned due to the lesser capacity of their blood to carry oxygen. In this situation the child suffers asphyxia and his/hers skin turns blue which is a typical syndrome of the blue baby. The nitrate salt is very soluble and, therefore, very hard to be eliminated from the water unless using very high costs treatments.

Recently, although without confirmed data for the human organism (there have been used guinea pigs) large concentrations of nitrate have been associated to the occurrence of cancer in the stomach or in the gullet. In face of the risk it represents the concentration of nitrate in the water for human consumption should never be higher than lOmg of N-NO3-/L or 44mg of NO3-/L according to the limits established by the United

States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and other entities concerning monitoring and environmental protection. (Source: Alvaro Vilela de Resende, researcher from Embrapa Cerrados, in Planaltina/DF).

Presently, there are many sewer and contaminated water treatment systems using micro and macronutrients. One of them is the chemical treatment, related to a method in which the purification and decantation tanks receive chemical products like: sulphate, chlorine, etc.. Said products are due to eliminate all existent impurities in the water. Another fully used method is filtration. The goal of such a method is to remove the polluting elements from waters mainly through absorption by carbon, distillation and others.

There also are biological methods for water treatment where stands out the roots system where the contaminated water from sewers is deposited in a waterproofed box filled with clay, sand and where sedges are planted. The effluents, than, pass through the roots of the sedges which absorb all the impurities from the sewer. This method is also indicated to treat waste waters from factories once the sedge is a vegetable having proprieties to absorb impurities and some heavy metals. Another natural biological system to treat effluents is based on using ozone and infrared light. The function of ozone in this kind of treatment facilities is the oxidation and dissociation of non biodegraded organic compounds.

The applicant of the present invention also has filed with INPI-BR the patent application PI0403866-5 "Sewer Treatment Natural System" and MU-8700880-7

"Improvement of the Sewer Treatment Natural System" which relate to sewer treatment natural system using as filtering means the bamboo (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others). It relates to some tanks like septic tanks joined together by pipes.

If the existing sewer treatment systems are well installed they have a satisfactory performance. But these same systems have some inconveniences causing a lot of trouble to their users and sometimes to the environment.

Installation and maintenance of chemical treatment has a high cost. Another inconvenient is getting rid of the chemical products used in the process. Such products are effective for the effluents treatment but extremely harmful contaminating the soil with which they enter in contact with.

On the other hand the roots system needs a large area in which a large volume of effluents can be treated. As normally the treatment systems join effluents from a neighborhood or from a whole town, such a fact may turn to be a problem to its usage that although being effective it needs an area sometimes unavailable in urban centers. The ozone and infrared system also presents risks of environmental contamination.

Being a highly instable and reactive chemical element it can't be transported or stored.

Than, there is the necessity that the ozone used in the sewer treatment be obtained at the own site at which it will be used. Likewise the roots system this system needs an area sometimes unavailable in urban centers. Another big inconvenient of a site to produce ozone is the high cost of installation and maintenance. Using the system related to the above mentioned patent applications there have been developed several tests in residences in which the level of toxic residues have been practically reduced to zero. A problem has been found in the final quality of the water which presented some problems related to the its coloring, turbidity, total suspended solids (sόlidos suspensos totais - SST) and the oxygen chemical demand (demanda quimica de oxigenio — DQO). This water could be piped to be reused in cleaning services, irrigation and gardening or, than, be discarded into the rain water pipeline network as a water not for human usage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention hereby described has the same basis of patent applications

PI04033866-5 and MU8700880-7 above mentioned but offers many improvements and solutions to the presented problems.

The present invention has been designed looking forward to get effluents treatment natural system with a minor number of steps as possible, conveniently configured and arranged to allow the system to perform its functions with unmatched effectiveness and versatilities without the already mentioned inconveniences.

The system uses bamboo (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among other especies) as preferred raw material to eliminate the pollution from domestic sewers, waste waters of industries and even from water treatment stations. The system hereby described will not be limited to any kind of equipment, shapes, sizes, materials with which the tanks are manufactured; arrangement and number of tanks; usage of pumps or electrical equipments or combustion equipments; water wheels to help driving the water; among other equipments that difficult using the system.

The invention will be describe using qualitative and quantitative examples but relying on the principles which will be the same for all the kinds of sewer treatments and residues in the most different situations and applications, as for example: domestic sewer, waste water from industries, rural sewer, sewer from condos except water treatment stations at which special filters are placed to total purifying the water reaching potable levels. The effluents treatment natural system uses bamboo (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among other species) as preferred raw material for the initial treatment of eliminating the pollution from water and will use, partially, one equipment described in patent application MU8700880-7 from the same inventor and applicant. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The understanding of the objects, advantages and other important characteristics of the present invention could be accomplished when seem together with the drawings, as follows:

Figure 1 represents the arrangement of the tanks of the effluents treatment natural system, Figure 2 represents a cross perspective view showing the arrangement of the holes in the bamboo used in the effluents treatment natural system. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention consists of a biological treatment to remove pollutants, specially nitrate and nitrite, from sewers and polluted waters. The system consists of using preferably from 7 to 23% in volume of bamboo(l)

(bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) related to the volume of each filtering tank.

Bamboo(l) is used as raw material to feed and host the bacteria(A) ("Pseudomonas Liminuis", "Bacilius Phagiens" and "Spirillum Brasiliensis") which after installed feed themselves from the pollutants and mainly from the nitrate. After implantation of the treatment system a preferred amount from 0,02% to 0,07% of sodium acetate and from 0,02% to 1% of sugar or from 0,02% to 0,07% of potassium acetate and from 0,02% to 1% of sugar should be added to the first tank(2) related to one volume of water of the tank. These additions act like accelerator of bacteπa(A) at the inner and outer walls of the bamboo(l) and promote the proliferation within two hours after additions.

Figure 1 shows the system preferably assembled in series assembled modular tanks(2)(3)(4), having internally bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) filtering elements. These tanks can be assembled under or on a surface and perform their filtering and purification functions by means of gravity. Said treatment system is connected to the sewer pipeline network receiving the effluents that will be submitted to the filtering and purification processes. The outlet water of the system can be piped to be reused in cleaning services, irrigation and gardening or be sent to the rain water pipeline network. The system may present a pre-filtering box(5) used as an inspection box for distribution of the solids which may come together with the received sewer flow. These solids are common in effluents and are kind of cigarettes, sponges, intimae absorbents, cloths, condoms or any other type of non biodegraded stuff. Said arrangement avoids clogging the system. The bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) filtering elements are place inside tanks(2)(3)(4) so they're be able to perform their function. Shape and size of the bamboo(l) are not limited to cloves and can be arranged in different shapes such as: disks, chopped and fibers. In the clove shape holes(A) are done for the entering and circulation of water and residues. The quantity of tanks varies according to the volume of sewer to be treated and to the place of application of them.

The outlet water tank(6) has inside it a filter(7) comprising preferably layers of: coal(7A), bamboo fϊbers(7B) and crushed rock(7C). But it can comprise different combinations of sand, bamboo coal or chlorine. The outgoing water from this filter has its final coloring bettered by the resins from the bamboos which are expelled during the first days of use.

Filter(7) also betters the levels of turbidity, total suspended solids (SST) and oxygen chemical demand (DQO). The system may be assembled before the potable water treatment stations then eliminating nitrate and nitrite from the contaminated water.

During the first days when the bamboo(l) is used as a filtering element it is not so effective once the quantity of bacteria(A) needed to destroy the pollutants, specially nitrate and nitrite, is too small. In the natural process the quantity of bacteria takes on the average 120 days to reach an effective level against the pollutants. In the present process adding accelerators on basis of sodium or phosphorus acetates and also small quantities of sugar, produces a large growth of the bacteria, that is, from only 2 to 5 hours it is possible to reach higher levels cleaning the water from pollutants in the first day of use.

Another problem appearing during the first days is the amount of coloring elements in the water due to the resin expelled by the bamboo(l). This occurrence is inevitable and needs 90 days on the average to end so the water can present an acceptable color. In the present process said coloring together with turbidity, total suspended solids (SST) and oxygen chemical demand (DQO) are filtered by the filters placed in the outlet water tank reaching acceptable levels within the rules established for general use. Depending on the number of tanks and on the combination of the used filters, preferably fϊlter(7) combined with chlorine, the outgoing water from the last tank could be potable.

Said system was developed from using existent natural active agents found in tropical plants such as the bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species). This plant characterizes itself by having long and hollow stems, stringy nature and divided by cloves between which are found the knots rich in starches. Together they feed and host bacteria(l) "Pseudomonas Liminuis", "Bacilius Phagiens" and "Spirillum Brasiliensis". These bacteria feed themselves from the pollutants and principally from nitrate. Bacteria from gender Pseudomonas and from gender Bacilius use nitrate to get hydrogen in their anaerobic breathing transforming them sequentially into nitrites, nitrous oxide and nitrogen gas. This is called denitrifying process allowing nitrogen in the shape of nitrate return to the atmosphere in the form of gas.

The denitrifying process comprises the following steps: Ion Ion Oxide Gas

Nitrate Nitrite Nitrous Nitrogen

(NO ₃) → (NCT₂) → (N₂O) → (N₂)

The bacteria present in the bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) actuate also in a aerobic medium, because it relates to a kind of facultative aerobic bacteria, but it could actuate as much in the presence as in the absence of oxygen without altering its efficiency.

The present system was developed from a total Brazilian biotechnology using tropical plants completely adapted to the Brazilian climate. The chemical proprieties of the bamboo (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) avoid the sludge, organic substance from the sewers, to concentrate on the tanks' wall. It also relates to a self-sufficient system that do not present costs to its maintenance. The system's constructive way also eliminates the septic tank conventional system.

The bacteria found in the bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among others species) belong to the Pseudomonas gender by the fact the experiences (performed in the University of South of Santa Catarina - UNISUL - Technological

Center Laboratories, oversaw by Professor Dr. Jair Juarez Joao, Professor Everton

Skoronski and with participation of Professor Biologist Jose de Lima Filho) show the withdrawal of nitrate from the potable water which laboratorial analysis prove its effectiveness. Besides this advantage showed by these microorganisms they also act to better the quality of the domestic and industrial effluents lessening the great deficiency of basic sanitation existent in our country and also around the world.

Lack of basic sanitation is the great cause of hospital internment and one of the major causes of worldwide infant mortality which can be decided upon a simple and cheap solution - The "Bioamendment" (BiorremediacSo) which is all the processes using bioorganisms, fungus, green plants or its enzymes returning the contaminated environment to its original condition. Such things point out as to be the solution for most of all pollutant problems caused by man kind in the world.

One can not measure the effectiveness of the invention from the point of view of economy in the treatment of waste waters from industries and domestic sewer, mainly in relation to public healthcare, low income workers and public power that claims about the lack of resources to be used in this area.

This system also has the best cost-benefit rate once it allows reusing the water for cleaning services, gardening and irrigation. The cycle of the treatment is fast and does not require qualified handworker. The effluents treatment natural system is ecologically correct, that is, it does not present any type of contamination risk to the environment, once it does not use chemical or organic products and neither uses electrical energy to run. AH the steps of the process are odorless. Therefore, it relates to a sewer treatment system environmentally correct which helps to preserve and to recover the sources of water and nature itself, besides offering unquestionable benefits to people's health.

Though it is to be understood that the "EFFLUENTS TREATMENT NATURAL SYSTEM" hereby described is extremely simple to construct and, therefore, of easy feasibility achieving excellent practical and functional results offering an innovative product related to the existing ones.

Claims

1. EFFLUENTS TREATMENT NATURAL SYSTEM is characterized by a biological treatment to remove pollutants, specially, nitrate and nitrite from sewers and polluted waters.

2. The treatment system according to claim 1 is characterized by using preferably from 7 to 23% in volume of bamboo(l) (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among other species) over the volume of each filtering tank.

3. The treatment system according to claim 2 is characterized by using the bamboos(l) in different shapes such us: cloves, discs, chopped and fibers among others; the clove shaped ones have holes(lA).

4. The treatment system according to claim 1 characterized by using modular series assembled tanks(2)(3)(4) having bamboo (bambusa vulgaris and bambusa tuldoides among other species) filtering elements arranged inside them.

5. The treatment system according to claim 4 characterized by using any kind of equipment: shapes, sizes, and materials which the tanks are made of.

6. The treatment system according to claim 4 characterized by changing the number of tanks according to the volume of sewer to be treated and with the place at which they are going to be assembled.

7. The treatment system according to claim 4 characterized by using pumps or electrical or combustion equipments and water wheels if needed to easy driving the water flow among other equipments that can improve using the system.

8. The treatment system according to claim 1 characterized by using a pre-filtering box(5)

9. The treatment system according to claim 1 characterized by using bacteria accelerator(A) in the first step.

10. The treatment system according to claim 6 characterized by being the bacteria accelerator(A) preferably from 0.02% to 0.07% sodium acetate and from 0.02% to 1% sugar related to the volume of water equal to the volume of the tank .

11. The treatment system according to claim 6 characterized by being the bacteria accelerator(A) preferably from 0.02% to 0.07% potassium acetate and from 0.02% to 1% sugar related to the volume of water equal to the volume of the tank.

12. The treatment system according to claim 1 characterized by having a fϊlter(7) consisting of layers inside an outgoing water tank(6).

13. The treatment system according to claim 12 characterized by comprising the fϊlter(7) preferably layers of coal(7A), bamboo fibers(7B) and crushed rock(7C).

14. The treatment system according to claim 13 characterized by combining the preferred arrangement of filter(7) with sand, bamboo charcoal or chlorine.

15. The treatment system according to claims 12, 13 and 14 characterized by using fϊlter(7) any combination of said elements.

16. The treatment system according to claim 1 characterized by being the treatment system installed at places before the potable water treatment stations.