Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Mec International Corporation

Zeotek Lrc Corporation

Noboru Inoue

Fumio Kawahara

Naoki Abe

The present invention relates to an oil-water separation apparatus which permits oil-water separation of heavily polluted oil-water mixed liquids or mixed liquids of high viscosity oil and water, etc., to be efficiently made. The present invention consists in an oil-water separation apparatus characterized in that in a top-opened separator tank into which oil-water mixed liquid is fed from a source liquid tank in which the oil-water mixed liquid of the source liquid, being the object of treatment, is contained, the inside-tank space is disected into an oil-water separation space and a separated water containing space, a partition plate is hung in the tank, forming under its bottom a communication route for enabling circulation between these two spaces, and while an oil outlet is opened through the part of the tank wall where the separated oil accumulates, a plural number of charged plates on which a voltage is applied are arranged, each two of them vis-a-vis, in the aforementioned oil-water separation space, said source liquid to be fed through the aforementioned oil-water separation space on which the electric filed acts.

Oil-water separation apparatus

A method of separating an aqueous colloidal solution by agglomeration into water and agglomerate of colloidal particles by applying voltage to the aqueous colloidal solution to promote the agglomeration of colloidal particles. The frequency of the voltage to be applied to the aqueous colloidal solution is increased to about 10 kHz to improve efficiency of agglomeration and suppress electrolysis of water. As the frequency is increased, hydrogen is generated earlier than the reaction of oxygen generated by the electrolysis of water with the colloidal particles, thus not oxidizing the colloidal particles. Further, as the frequency is increased, the colloidal particles tend to obtain a greater oscillation energy, thus facilitating the agglomeration thereof.

Method of and apparatus for separation by agglomeration

The present invention is conceived to provide methods for efficiently separating two liquids different in sp. gr. which are in a mixed state and apparatuses for implementing them. The present invention devised an arrangement such that between an outer cylindrical electrode doubled as an apparatus container and an inner cylindrical electrode concentrically disposed relative to said outer cylindrical electrode and set to the equal potential to that of the outer cylindrical electrode, a charging electrode is provided concentrically thereto, thereby defining not only between the aforementioned electrodes mixture liquid passage spaces for letting the mixture of two liquids flow upwardly, but a separated liquid collecting space above said mixture liquid passage spaces, and that inside the inner cylindrical electrode, there is provided a space for letting the liquid to be separated flow down which is designed to guide downwardly the liquid to be separated left after removal of the impurity liquid, with a voltage high enough to neutralize the zeta potential of impurity liquid particles in the mixture applied between the aforementioned electrodes, respectively. In this way, not only the impurity liquid particles in the mixture are got cohere together into coarse particles by dint of their intermolecular attraction, but the separated liquid which has floated up or settled down, according to the sp. gr. difference between the mixture and the coarse particles, is collected and, then, discharged.

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Ono, Japan

Noboru Inoue