| Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processes -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
  Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processesRelated Patent Categories: Chemistry: Analytical And Immunological Testing, Tracers Or TagsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060160227. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 11/038,718 filed Jan. 20, 2005. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This invention relates to water treatment. More particularly, this invention concerns methods of using fluorescent tracers to monitor the residual concentration of treating agents in treated water, to determine an optimal water treatment agent dosage and to automatically re set the optimal treating agent dosage as necessary to account for fluctuations in the characteristics of the treated water. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Water, in the course of its use in industrial, municipal and agricultural applications may be treated with an astounding array of treatment agents including, for example, chemicals that enhance solid-liquid separation, membrane separation process performance enhancers, antiscalants and anticorrosives that retard or prevent corrosion or scale formation and deposition on surfaces in contact with the treated water, antifoulants that retard or prevent membrane fouling, biodispersants, microbial-growth inhibiting agents such as biocides and cleaning chemicals that remove deposits from surfaces that contact the treated water. [0004] Control of treating agent dosage is of paramount importance in virtually all water treatment processes. Obviously, a minimum effective amount of treating agent must be maintained in the water for the treatment to have its desired effect. Conversely, overdosing the treating agent would be at best uneconomical and at worst could result in damage to the process or the processing equipment, particularly in the case of processes involving the use of membranes as described herein. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for the development of improved methods of monitoring and controlling the concentration of water treatment agents in process water. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] This invention is a method of monitoring residual treating agent and determining optimal treating agent dosage in process water treated with the treating agent comprising sequentially i) adding a first dose of the treating agent traced or tagged with a fluorescent tracer to the process water, ii) measuring the fluorescence intensity of the process water, iii) adding a second dose of the treating agent traced or tagged with the fluorescent tracer the process water; iv) measuring the fluorescence intensity of the process water; and v-a) correlating the change in measured fluorescence intensity of the process water at the first and second treating agent doses to the residual concentration of the treating agent; or [0006] v-b) correlating the change in the measured fluorescence intensity of the process water at the first and second treating agent doses with a non-proportional change in measured fluorescence intensity, wherein the non-proportional change in measured fluorescence intensity of the process water is used to determine a set point corresponding to the optimal treating agent dosage. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0007] FIG. 1 is a plot of turbidity (5 micron filtered NTU) and fluorescence intensity (5 micron filtered) vs. polymer dosage around the optimal polymer dosage for Mississippi river water treated with poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) as described in Example 4. [0008] FIG. 2 is a plot of Particle Index data and fluorescence intensity vs. polymer dosage for water treated with poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) at a southern U.S. petrochemical plant as described in Example 5. The data shows the optimal polymer dosage to be about 0.5-0.7 ppm for this site. [0009] FIG. 3 is a plot of the slope of the fluorescence curve in FIG. 2 vs. polymer dosage. The data shows that the rate of fluorescence change is about 7 times greater around the optimal polymer dose than at over and under dose conditions. [0010] FIG. 4 is a plot of the fluorescence change around the optimal traced polymer dose at a southern U.S. petrochemical plant as described in Example 5 which demonstrates how the dramatic fluorescence change around the optimal traced-polymer dose can be used to automatically change the dose set point as the influent water quality fluctuates. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0011] This invention allows for treating agent residual monitoring by utilizing fluorescent molecules. These molecules are selected such that they interact or associate with the treating agent and any undesirable colloids. It is this interaction that partitions the fluorescent chromophore population between different microenvironments. This partitioning changes the fluorescent properties such that the fluorescence intensity is notably different. The three microenvironments are free chromophore (i.e. dissolved in water), chromophore associated with treating agent (i.e. `bound` chromophore) and chromophore associated with the undesirable colloids. When the treated water contains only freely dissolved chromophore the fluorescence intensity is what one would expect. When the treated water contains treating agent residuals and/or colloids, the fluorescence intensity is notably different than expected since the `bound`/associated chromophores display different characteristics. The change in fluorescence intensity may be manifested by a non-proportional increase or decrease depending on the characteristics of the treated water, and the tagged or traced treating agent. [0012] In a polymer overdose scenario filtrate water has more colloids and excess polymer and excess tracer; together the tracer fluorescence intensity is dramatically different. In an under-dose scenario while colloids are present, no polymer or tracer is present; thus, the fluorescence intensity is low. Thus, in the transition between treating agent under-dose to over-dose scenario the fluorescence intensity notably changes. It is this change in fluorescence intensity that allows us to determine the optimal treating agent dose. [0013] This difference between expected and actual fluorescence is used to quantitatively estimate the treating agent residuals. By using fluorescence response and treating agent dose at two points, the treating agent residuals can be estimated from a calibration curve. Continue reading... Full patent description for Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processes Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processes patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processes or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Artificial testing soil and method of testing Next Patent Application: Method of monitoring treating agent residuals in water treatment processes Industry Class: Chemistry: analytical and immunological testing ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Method of monitoring treating agent residuals and controlling treating agent dosage in water treatment processes patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.27496 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Accenture , Agouron Pharmaceuticals , Amgen , AT&T , Bausch & Lomb , Callaway Golf |
||
