Acoustic Wave Separation for Industrial Waste Water Treatment

Abstract

Industries generate very large amount of
waste products in form of liquids and solids.
Liquid waste products are typically
chemicals and oils while solid products are
particles and scrap. Disposal of this waste is
done by washing them away with water.
Known as industrial waste water, it
contains hydrocarbons, salt, radioactive
material and other compounds, as well as
many chemicals. To treat this water before
disposal or reuse, the industry depends on
filtration and separation techniques. To
remove dispersed particles or droplets from
a host liquid the series of complex
techniques are used, which also involves
additional chemicals along with high
consumption of energy. Even after using
those technique disposal water may contain
oil droplets and few contaminants.
However Acoustic Wave Separation
technology aims to change this scene. This
technology uses high frequency ultrasonic
sound waves produced by ultrasonic
transducers to separate contaminants from
waste water, thus making it reusable. It’s
cost effective and efficient technology which
can remove hydrocarbons, suspended
particles, chemicals, nitrate, phosphate and
other contaminants from waste water and
thus making it safe to dispose in river.
These technologies have already been used
previously for variety of purposes. This
technology had been used by Laboratory
for Energy in South Africa to separate
suspended talcum powder from water. It
has been used by Los Alamos Research
laboratory for separating 10W40 motor oil
from water. Akira Hiratsuka, Yugo
Tomonaga, Yoshiro Yasuda, Ryoji Tsujino
used different acoustic wave systems and
obtained more than 90% removal rate with
water containing NO2, NO3, TH etc. Also it

was used in biology for continuous cell
retention.
Thus, AWS can provide cost effective way
for industrial waste water treatment. By
using AWS for industrial wastewater, we
aim to combine results of all previous
research. Industrial waste water contains
suspended particles, oil, chemicals as well as
other potential contaminants like nitrate
and phosphate. Thus depending on the
combined result we get, AWS for waste
water treatment can perform well on
grounds of both cost and efficiency.