JP6041196B2 - Neutralizer and hot water apparatus provided with the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a neutralizer suitable for neutralizing acidic drain water (drain water) generated in a so-called latent heat recovery type hot water supply device, and a hot water device such as a hot water supply device equipped with the neutralizer.

The present applicant has previously proposed the one described in Patent Document 1 as an example of a neutralizer. This neutralizer uses a magnesium-based basic neutralizer as a neutralizer. Here, in the present specification, the “basic neutralizing agent” means a neutralizing agent that makes the equilibrium pH strong when it reacts with an acid. If such a neutralizing agent is used, compared with the case where a non-basic neutralizing agent such as calcium carbonate is used, for example, the neutralizing treatment performance is excellent. It is possible to reduce the size of the neutralizer.
On the other hand, when a basic neutralizing agent is used, an excessive reaction occurs when drain water stays in the neutralizer for a long time, and the drain water becomes strongly alkaline. Disposing of such strong alkaline drain water as it is is not preferable from the viewpoint of environmental protection.
Therefore, in Patent Document 1, the drain water introduction pipe of the neutralizer and the drain water drain pipe are connected via a bypass pipe provided with a flow rate adjustment valve, and the neutralization treatment is untreated in the drain water drain pipe. A means to allow the flow of strongly acidic drain water is adopted. According to such means, it is possible to neutralize these by mixing the strongly acidic drain water with the drain water that has passed through the neutralizer and has become strongly alkaline. Therefore, it is possible to prevent strong alkaline drain water from being discarded to the outside.

  However, in the prior art, there is still room for improvement as follows.

  That is, in the said prior art, since the drain water which passed the neutralizer is employ | adopted the means to neutralize these by mixing the untreated drain water with neutralization processing, drain water is appropriately used. In order to neutralize, it is necessary to detect the pH of each of the two types of drain water to be mixed, and appropriately control the mixing ratio of the two types of drain water according to their values. The pH of the two types of drain water to be mixed is not constant, and the pH of the drain water discharged from the neutralizer varies greatly. Therefore, the control for carrying out the neutralization treatment is somewhat complicated and not very easy. Conventionally, there is still room for improvement in this respect.

JP 2000-107771 A

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances as described above, and it is complicated to control the situation in which strong alkaline drain water is discharged when a basic neutralizing agent is used as a neutralizing agent. It is an object of the present invention to provide a neutralizer that can be appropriately prevented with a simple configuration and a hot water device including the neutralizer.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

A neutralizer provided by the first aspect of the present invention includes a neutralization tank that contains a neutralizing agent for neutralizing acidic drain water introduced from an inlet, and the inside of the neutralization tank And a discharge port for discharging drain water that has passed through the end of the neutralization treatment tank to the outside. a plurality of bypass communicating portion that allows the than the terminal portion of the sum processing tank is provided in the drain water flow upstream side, and to flow the drain water of the neutralization tank to the outlet, at least a portion Is provided in correspondence with the plurality of bypass communication portions so as to be in contact with the drain water in the neutralization treatment tank located in the neutralization treatment tank, and corresponds to the pH of the drain water in contact therewith . a plurality of valves of pH-responsive opening and closing operation is possible, provided with a, The plurality of bypass communication portions and the plurality of valves are arranged in a distributed manner along the flow direction of the drain water, and the drain water that does not reach a predetermined pH is present among the plurality of valves. The valve is in a first state in which drain water does not pass through the bypass communication portion corresponding to the valve, while the valve at the position where the drain water reaching the predetermined pH is present It is characterized by being configured to be in a second state where drain water passes through the communicating portion .

According to such a configuration, the following effects can be obtained when a basic neutralizing agent such as magnesium is used as the neutralizing agent.
That is, when the strongly acidic drain water flowing into the neutralization tank is not sufficiently neutralized and the drain water does not reach a predetermined pH, the first state is set. At this time, the drain water does not pass through the bypass communication portion, and the neutralization process and the subsequent discharge are performed as usual. On the other hand, when the drain water is neutralized and reaches a predetermined pH, the second state is set. At this time, it is possible to allow the drain water to flow through the bypass communication portion and flow to the discharge port before the drain water reaches the end portion of the neutralization treatment tank. Therefore, it is suppressed that the drain water which reached predetermined | prescribed pH will remain in a neutralization processing tank over a long time after that, and it is prevented that the pH becomes still higher. Therefore, strong alkaline drain water can be prevented from being discharged.
In the present invention, a pH-responsive valve is used as a means for realizing the operation as described above, but this valve may be any one that opens and closes according to the pH of the drain water. . In the present invention, unlike Patent Document 1, it is not necessary to perform complicated control, and it is not necessary to use expensive equipment for that purpose. Therefore, it is possible to suitably reduce the manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, drain water that has reached a predetermined pH is discharged to the outside of the neutralization tank at an early stage, thereby suppressing wasteful consumption of the neutralizing agent and extending its service life. I can expect.

In the present invention, preferably, a plurality of valves of the pH-responsive type is configured to perform the valve opening and closing operations using the polymer gel volume corresponding to the pH changes.
The polymer gel may be a hydrophilic polymer gel having a three-dimensional network structure typified by polyacrylic acid or polyvinyl alcohol and having a hydrophilic group bonded to the polymer.
The polymer gel includes those having acid / shrinkage-alkaliness / swelling characteristics and those having acidity / swelling-alkaliness / swelling characteristics, and any type is adopted in the present invention. May be.

  According to such a configuration, it is more preferable to eliminate or reduce the need to use expensive electrical equipment, and to simplify the overall configuration and reduce the manufacturing cost.

In the present invention, preferably, the plurality of bypass communication portions are provided in a bottom wall portion or a side wall portion of the neutralization treatment tank, and are located at positions adjacent to the bottom wall portion or the side wall portion. the drain water which has passed through the communication portion has been drain water drainage channel which can be caused to flow toward that provided in the discharge port, a plurality of valves of the pH-responsive type, for opening and closing the plurality of bypass communicating portion And is closed when the drain water in the neutralization tank has not reached the predetermined pH, and is open when the drain water reaches the predetermined pH. Has been.

  According to such a configuration, when the drain water in the neutralization treatment tank reaches a predetermined pH, the drain water is drained from the bypass communication portion provided on the bottom wall or the side wall of the neutralization treatment tank. It can be discharged to the drainage channel and then discharged appropriately from the outlet. Therefore, the operation intended by the present invention can be realized by a simple flow path structure.

  The hot water device provided by the second aspect of the present invention includes a heat exchanger capable of recovering latent heat from combustion gas or other gas containing latent heat, and a neutralization treatment of drain water generated by the latent heat recovery. And a neutralizer for performing, wherein the neutralizer provided by the first aspect of the present invention is used as the neutralizer.

  According to such a configuration, the same effect as described for the neutralizer provided by the first aspect of the present invention can be obtained.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(A) is a schematic sectional drawing which shows an example of the neutralizer which concerns on this invention, (b) shows the closed state of the pH response type valve used with the neutralizer shown to (a). It is principal part sectional drawing, (c) is principal part sectional drawing which shows the open state of the valve | bulb. It is a schematic sectional drawing which shows the other example of the neutralizer which concerns on this invention. It is a schematic sectional drawing which shows the other example of the neutralizer which concerns on this invention. (A) is sectional drawing which shows the open state of the valve | bulb of a pH response type used with the neutralizer of FIG. 3, (b) is IVb-IVb sectional drawing of (a), (c ) Is a cross-sectional view showing a closed state of the valve, and (d) is a cross-sectional view taken along line IVd-IVd in (c). It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the warm water apparatus provided with the neutralizer shown in FIG.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  A neutralizer A1 shown in FIG. 1 (a) includes a container 1 that serves as a neutralizer body, a plurality of bypass communication portions 11, and a plurality of pH-responsive valves V1.

  The container 1 is made of resin, and a neutralization treatment tank 10 containing a neutralizing agent 2 is provided therein. The neutralizing agent 2 is a basic neutralizing agent such as magnesium oxide and is granular or pellet-shaped. An inlet 12 for drain water is provided at the upper portion of one end in the width direction of the container 1, and a discharge port 13 for drain water is provided at the lower portion of the other end in the width direction. The drain water subject to neutralization treatment flows into the neutralization treatment tank 10 from the inlet 12. A trap portion 14 for sealing the drain water is provided in the middle of the position. A plurality of partition walls 15a and 15b extending in the vertical height direction are provided in the neutralization treatment tank 10 so as to form a gap below or above the neutralization treatment tank 10, The drain water is configured to meander up and down. The end portion 10e of the neutralization treatment tank 10 (which is an end portion in the drain water flow direction and is an opening) communicates with an upper portion of a drain water discharge path 17a provided adjacent to the side of the neutralization treatment tank 10. doing. Therefore, the drain water that has reached the end portion 10e then flows through the drain water discharge path 17a, reaches the discharge port 13, and is discharged outside the neutralizer A1.

The plurality of bypass communication portions 11 are openings provided in the bottom wall portion 18 of the neutralization treatment tank 10 (see FIGS. 1B and 1C). The plurality of bypass communication portions 11 are positioned in the lower portions of the plurality of areas AR (AR1 to AR3) partitioned by the partition wall 15b that stands upward from the bottom wall portion 18 in the neutralization treatment tank 10. It is provided to do. Below the bottom wall portion 18 of the neutralization treatment tank 10, a substantially horizontal drain water discharge passage 17 b having one end communicating with the discharge port 13 is provided, and each of the bypass communication portions 11 discharges this drain water. It communicates with the path 17b.

  The pH-responsive valve V1 opens and closes the bypass communication portion 11 corresponding to the pH of the drain water, and is attached to the bottom wall portion 18 of the neutralization tank 10. As shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, the valve V1 includes a valve body 31 for opening and closing the bypass communication portion 11, and a drive for raising and lowering the valve body 31 according to the pH of the drain water. A support portion 32 that is fixedly attached to the portion 30, the bottom wall portion 18, and supports the drive portion 30, and a spring 33. The drive unit 30 is a part whose volume changes corresponding to the pH of the drain water, and is configured using a pH-responsive polymer gel. This polymer gel has the property of repeatedly shrinking and swelling depending on the pH of the liquid in contact. The polymer gel used in this embodiment has a characteristic that its volume increases as the pH increases. As an example of the polymer gel having such characteristics, a polyacrylic acid gel such as a copolymer of NNDEA (N, N-diethylacrylamide) and acrylic acid can be mentioned. The drive part 30 is the structure which filled the above-mentioned polymer gel in the bag-shaped or cylindrical member of the material which has a stretching property and water permeability, for example.

  When the drain water is acidic, the valve V1 is in a valve closed state in which the valve main body 31 closes the bypass communication portion 11 as shown in FIG. At this time, the elastic force of the spring 33 is also used to appropriately contact the valve body 31 with the valve seat portion. On the other hand, when the drain water becomes neutral (pH 7), for example, the valve is opened as shown in FIG. In this state, the pH-responsive polymer gel that constitutes the drive unit 30 swells and the drive unit 30 extends against the elastic force of the spring 33. As a result, the valve body 31 separates from the valve seat portion. ing.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a hot water apparatus provided with the neutralizer A1.
The hot water apparatus B shown in the figure includes a combustor 91 provided in a can 90, a blower 92 for sending combustion air to the combustor 91, a heat exchanger 93, and an outer case 94 covering the whole. Yes. The heat exchanger 93 includes a primary heat exchange unit 93A capable of recovering sensible heat from the combustion gas generated by the combustor 91, and a secondary heat exchange unit 93B capable of recovering latent heat. The water supplied to the water inlet 930 is heated after passing through the secondary heat exchange unit 93B and the primary heat exchange unit 93A, and then supplied from the hot water outlet 931 to a predetermined hot water supply destination. A drain water receiver 95 is provided below the secondary heat exchange section 93B to receive acidic drain water generated with latent heat recovery.
The neutralizer A1 is disposed in the outer case 94, and the drain water received by the drain water receiver 95 is guided to the introduction port 12 of the neutralizer A1 through the pipe 96a. A tube body 7 is connected to the discharge port 13 of the neutralizer A1 for guiding drain water that has been neutralized to the outside of the outer case 94.

  Next, the effect | action of neutralizer A1 and the hot water apparatus B provided with this is demonstrated.

  First, each valve V1 of the neutralizer A1 is in the closed state shown in FIG. Therefore, the drain water introduced into the introduction port 12 meanders up and down in the neutralization treatment tank 10 and reaches the end portion 10e. In this process, drain water is neutralized. The drain water that has reached the end portion 10e passes through the drain water discharge path 17a, reaches the discharge port 13, and is discharged.

When the operation of the hot water apparatus B is stopped, no new drain water is supplied to the neutralizer A1, so that the drain water stays in the neutralization tank 10 during this period. . When this residence time is relatively long, the drain water exceeds the neutral pH and becomes alkaline. On the other hand, when the drain water becomes neutral, the valve V1 is opened as shown in FIG. Then, the drain water flows from the bypass communication part 11 to the drain water discharge path 17 b and then goes to the discharge port 13. Therefore, it is appropriately avoided that the drain water stays in the neutralization treatment tank 10 for a long time and becomes strongly alkaline, and accordingly, the discharge of the strong alkaline drain water from the discharge port 13 is also appropriately avoided. . Since the bypass communication portion 11 and the valve V1 are provided corresponding to each of the plurality of regions AR of the neutralization treatment tank 10, the above-described action is obtained for each of the plurality of regions AR, and is more preferable. It will be a thing.

  According to this embodiment, it is possible to appropriately prevent the discharge of strong alkaline drain water while eliminating the need to perform complicated operation control. Since the drive unit 30 for opening and closing the valve V1 uses a pH-responsive polymer gel, an electromagnetic device for driving the valve V1, a pH sensor, or the like is unnecessary, and the cost can be reduced. Is possible.

  2 to 4 show other embodiments of the present invention. In these drawings, elements that are the same as or similar to those in the above embodiment are given the same reference numerals as in the above embodiment.

  The neutralizer A2 shown in FIG. 2 is configured such that the neutralization tank 10 extends in the vertical direction, and the drain water introduced into the inlet 12 is provided on one side in the container 1. After flowing downward through the flow path 12a, it reaches the starting end 10s at the bottom of the neutralization tank 10. Thereafter, the drain water travels upward in the neutralization treatment tank 10 and reaches the end portion 10e, and then passes through the drain water discharge passage 17c and reaches the discharge port 13. The side wall portion 16c of the neutralization treatment tank 10 is provided with a plurality of bypass communication portions 11 for communicating the neutralization treatment tank 10 with the drain water discharge path 17c. The plurality of bypass communication portions 11 are provided at different heights, and are preferably provided at a height substantially equal to the start end portion 10s of the neutralization treatment tank 10 as indicated by an arrow n1. ing. This configuration realizes that substantially the entire drain water in the neutralization treatment tank 10 is discharged. Each bypass communication portion 11 can be opened and closed by a pH-responsive valve V1 similar to that shown in FIGS.

  In the present embodiment, when the drain water in the neutralization treatment tank 10 becomes neutral, the valve V1 located near the area where the neutral drain water is present is opened. Then, the drain water flows out from the bypass communication portion 11 at that portion to the drain water discharge passage 17 c and reaches the discharge port 13. Therefore, also in the present embodiment, it is possible to suitably eliminate the possibility that strong alkaline drain water is discharged to the outside without performing complicated control.

  In the neutralizer A3 shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of partition walls 15c are provided in the neutralization treatment tank 10 at intervals in the vertical height direction, and the neutralization treatment tank 10 has a plurality of regions AR (AR1 to AR5). ). The plurality of partition walls 15c are provided with water-passing holes 19, and a plurality of pH-responsive valves V2 are provided in a staggered arrangement so as to close the holes 19.

  Unlike the valve V1 of the above-described embodiment, the valve V2 is open when the drain water is acidic, and closed when neutral. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the valve V <b> 2 has a structure in which a pH-responsive polymer gel 41 and a valve body 42 are accommodated in a hard case 40. The polymer gel 41 is the same as that described in the above embodiment. The valve body 42 is made of, for example, a comparatively soft member and has a loop shape or a lip shape that can be expanded and contracted. The peripheral region of the valve body 42 is surrounded by the polymer gel 41.

When the pH is low and the polymer gel 41 is not swollen, the valve main body 42 is not pressed by the polymer gel 41 and becomes a loop as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b). An opening 42 'is formed in the direction. The bottom wall of the case 40 is provided with a water passage hole 43 that communicates with the opening 42 ′. Therefore, in the state described above, the opening 42 ′ and the hole 4
The drain water passes through 3. On the other hand, when the pH becomes high and the polymer gel 41 swells, the valve body 42 is pressed by the polymer gel 41 and is in a closed state as shown in FIGS. In this case, the passage of drain water is prevented. A porous member 44 is provided on the upper surface portion of the case 40. The porous member 44 is for preventing the polymer gel 41 from swelling in a state where it protrudes above the case 40 while allowing the drain water to contact the polymer gel 41.

  In FIG. 3, the drain water introduced into the introduction port 12 first flows into the uppermost area AR <b> 1 of the neutralization treatment tank 10. When each valve V2 is in the open state, the drain water descends while meandering the plurality of regions AR1 to AR5 to the left and right. The drain water that has passed through the lowermost area AR5 is discharged to the outside from the discharge port 13 below.

  A plurality of bypass communication portions 11 a are provided on both side wall portions 16 c and 16 d of the neutralization treatment tank 10. These bypass communication portions 11a are provided corresponding to the respective areas AR, and the height thereof is close to the upper part of each area AR. When the drain water normally flows through each area AR, the water level of the drain water is lower than the height of the bypass communication portion 11a, and in the normal state, the drain water is at the height of the bypass communication portion 11a. Not reach or hardly reach. On both sides of the neutralization treatment tank 10, drain water discharge paths 17 d and 17 e for guiding drain water that has passed through the bypass communication portion 11 a to the discharge port 13 are provided.

  According to the present embodiment, when the drain water is not yet sufficiently neutralized, each valve V2 is in an open state, and the drain water sequentially flows through the plurality of regions AR1 to AR5 and reaches the discharge port 13. . On the other hand, when the drain water becomes neutral, for example, the valve V2 in the area AR where the drain water exists is closed. Then, as a result of the rise of the drain water level in the area AR, the drain water flows out from the bypass communication portion 11a to the drain water discharge paths 17d and 17e and reaches the discharge port 13. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately prevent drain water from staying in one area AR and becoming strongly alkaline. In the present embodiment, although the valve V2 having a structure different from that of the above-described embodiment is used, complicated operation control is not necessary. Neither electromagnetic devices for driving the valve V2 nor pH sensors are required.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the neutralizer and the hot water apparatus according to the present invention can be variously modified within the range intended by the present invention.

The valves V1 and V2 of the above-described embodiment use a polymer that has a property of contracting when acidic as a polymer gel, but has a property of contracting when alkaline. It is also possible to configure a pH responsive valve. As a polymer gel having a property of shrinking when alkaline, for example, a copolymer of NNDEA (N, N-diethylacrylamide) and VTPMLH (bis-4dimethylaminophenyl-4vinylphenyl-methylleucohydroxide) is used. Can be mentioned.
In the valve V2 shown in FIG. 4, when the polymer gel 41 is replaced with an alkaline one that contracts, the valve is opened when it is alkaline and closed when it is acidic. Therefore, this valve can be used in place of the valve V1 in the neutralizers A1 and A2 of FIGS. On the other hand, in the valve V1 shown in FIG. 1, when the polymer is replaced with one that contracts with alkalinity, this valve is opened when it is acidic, so that the valve V2 of the neutralizer A3 in FIG. It can be used instead.

From the viewpoint of further facilitating the miniaturization, weight reduction, and cost reduction of the neutralizer, a pH-responsive type polymer gel such as the above-described valves V1, V2 is used as the pH-responsive type valve. Although it is preferable to use, it is not limited to this. For example, a combination of a pH sensor for detecting the pH of drain water in the neutralization tank and an on / off valve such as an electromagnetic system performs an opening operation or a closing operation when the drain water reaches a predetermined pH. Such a configuration is also included in the concept of a pH-responsive valve in the present invention. Even in such a configuration, the control is easy because the on-off valve is merely opened and closed according to the value detected using the pH sensor.
In addition, the pH responsive type valve, for example, instead of opening and closing the drain water when it becomes neutral, for example, when it becomes weakly alkaline or weakly acidic (weakly acidic within a range where there is no adverse environmental impact) The opening and closing may be performed at the timing, and even in such a case, an effect of suppressing the drain water from becoming a strong alkali can be obtained.

As described above, the basic neutralizing agent in the present invention is a neutralizing agent whose equilibrium pH when reacted with an acid becomes strong alkalinity, and other than magnesium oxide (MgO), for example, metal Mg Mg / OH-based compounds such as Mg (OH) ₂ and MgCO) ₃ are representative examples, but are not limited thereto. Although the neutralizer which concerns on this invention has a preferable effect when a basic neutralizer is used as a neutralizer, it can also neutralize acidic drain water using other neutralizers. The specific type of neutralizing agent is not limited.

In the embodiment described above, the neutralization treatment tank is divided into a plurality of regions partitioned by a plurality of partition walls, but the neutralization treatment tank is configured not to be divided into such a plurality of regions. Also good.
The neutralizer according to the present invention neutralizes drain water generated by the recovery of latent heat from combustion gas and other gas containing latent heat (such as high-temperature exhaust gas discharged from the power generation unit of the cogeneration system). If it is a use, it can be used for various uses, for example, it can also be incorporated and used in a device different from the hot water device.
The hot water device according to the present invention is a concept that broadly refers not only to a hot water supply device but also to all devices having a function of generating hot water.

A1-A3 Neutralizer V1, V2 pH-responsive valve 1 Container (Neutralizer body)
2 Neutralizing agent 10 Neutralization tank 10e Termination part (of neutralization tank)
11, 11a Bypass communication portion 12 Inlet port 13 Discharge ports 17a-17e Drain water discharge paths 16c, 16d Side wall portion 18 Bottom wall portion (of neutralization treatment tank)

Claims (4)

A neutralization tank containing a neutralizing agent for neutralizing acidic drain water introduced from the introduction port;
A discharge port for discharging the drain water that has passed through the end of the neutralization treatment tank through the neutralization treatment tank;
A neutralizer comprising:
Among the neutralization treatment tanks, it is provided on the upstream side in the drain water flow direction with respect to the end portion of the neutralization treatment tank, and allows the drain water in the neutralization treatment tank to flow to the discharge port. A plurality of bypass communication sections;
The pH of the drain water that is provided corresponding to the plurality of bypass communication portions and is in contact with the drain water so that at least a portion is located in the neutralization treatment tank and is in contact with the drain water in the neutralization treatment tank. A plurality of pH-responsive valves capable of corresponding opening and closing operations;
With
The plurality of bypass communication portions and the plurality of valves are arranged in a distributed manner along the flow direction of the drain water,
Among the plurality of valves, a valve at a position where drain water that does not reach a predetermined pH is in a first state in which drain water does not pass through a bypass communication portion corresponding to the valve. The neutralization device , wherein the valve at the position where the drain water reaching the pH exists is configured to be in a second state in which the drain water passes through the bypass communication portion corresponding to the valve . . The neutralizer according to claim 1,
Wherein the plurality of valves of pH-responsive type is configured by using a polymer gel volume corresponding to the pH changes perform valve opening and closing operation, neutralizer. The neutralizer according to claim 1 or 2,
The plurality of bypass communication portions are provided in a bottom wall portion or a side wall portion of the neutralization treatment tank, and drain water that has passed through the bypass communication portion is positioned adjacent to the bottom wall portion or the side wall portion. Is provided with a drain water drainage channel that can flow toward the outlet,
A plurality of valves of the pH-responsive, while the closed state when said provided plurality of to open and close the bypass communication unit, and drain water of the neutralization tank has not reached the predetermined pH A neutralizer configured to be in an open state when the drain water reaches the predetermined pH. A heat exchanger capable of recovering latent heat from combustion gas or other gas containing latent heat;
A neutralizer for performing a neutralization treatment of drain water generated along with the latent heat recovery, and a hot water device,
A warm water apparatus, wherein the neutralizer according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is used as the neutralizer.

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