Method of and apparatus for pre-treating make-up water contaminated with nutrients
US4446025A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 23, 1982 |
| Grant date | May 1, 1984 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 23, 2002 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC E)Fixed Constructions
- CPC primaryE02D29/077
- WIPO fieldCivil engineering
- WIPO sectorOther fields
Abstract
Make-up water contaminated with nutrients is pretreated by establishing a stagnant pond of brackish water having an upper wind-mixed layer exposed to solar radiation and of relatively low, uniform salinity, an intermediate halocline whose salinity increases monotonically with depth, and a lower collection layer of relatively high, uniform salinity. Make-up water contaminated with nutrients is added to the wind-mixed layer wherein the nutrients support the growth of photosynthetic microbes. The wind-mixed layer is provided with Artemia salina (brine shrimp) that feed on the photosynthetic microbes growing in the wind-mixed layer and extrude fecal pellets of a density in excess of the density of at least the upper layer of the pond, whereby the pellets sink below the wind-mixed layer, and preferably to the collection layer. Upward diffusion from the collection layer into the wind-mixed layer of the disintegrated constituents of the fecal pellets is suppressed by reason of the stratified nature of the halocline. In this way, the brine shrimp clear the wind-mixed layer of nutrients.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.