Deoxygenating unit

Abstract

A system for deaerating water is offered for use in brewing beer and the like. The novel system comprises a water-receiving preliminary deaerator, a water flow metering device, and a gas-exchange deaerating column connected to the water flow meter. The deaerating column includes a fluid exhaust pump unit bottom, and mounted atop the pump unit, one or more deoxygenating unit modules. Each deoxygenating unit module includes an outer unit wall, a foraminous retainer baffle sheet bottom, and a stack member extending upwardly from the baffle sheet. Together, the wall, sheet and stack form a foraminous-bottomed retainer for retaining a continuous layer of water. Below the retainer is a basin having another foraminous bottom for temporarily retaining liquid falling from the retainer baffle sheet above. The basin and retainer are so constructed as to require gas, which passes into the unit at the column bottom, to flow upwardly through the column units in a serpentine path and to undergo intimate mixture with the downwardly falling water droplets. This intimate gas-water mixing drives out air dissolved or otherwise contained within the water, and reduces the level of air retained within the water to a level on the order of one or two parts of air per billion parts of water. The thus-deaerated water is then routed to a proportioner for mixing with Strong Brew; the mix is transferred to a carbonator and cooler and is then transferred to storage or other downstream processing units.