Claims:We Claim:

1. A water purification system controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane comprising:
a) atleast a reverse osmosis filter cartridge/membrane for purifying the water comprising an outlet port for dispensing the purified water and a reject line dispensing the concentrated water;
b) atleast a bypass line configured with a bypass mechanism adapted to be positioned in an opening area in said reject line, wherein said bypass mechanism comprises atleast a spring in connection with a resilient means;
where said reject line is optionally configured with a pressure controlling means, said pressure controlling means comprises flow restrictor, solenoid valve or like;
c) a flow restrictor configured to be connected to said reject line of said cartridge/membrane thus controlling the flow rate of water and creating back pressure on said cartridge,
d) a solenoid valve positioned parallel to said flow restrictor for bypassing water at regular intervals thus flushing off the deposited contamination on cartridge/membrane surface;
wherein said spring in connection with resilient means maintains a pre-defined pressure for creating a back pressure in said reject line holding said resilient means sealed on said opening if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it;
while said resilient means activates to open pushing/compressing the spring allowing the water to flow through it if the water pressure in said reject line is higher than said pre-defined pressure of said spring in connection with resilient means.

2. The system as claimed in a claim 1, wherein said resilient means comprises diaphragm, plunger or flat seal like structure.
3. The spring claimed in claim 1, wherein said spring comprises compression spring, tension spring, torsion spring.
4. A method of controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane by the water purifier of claim 1 comprising:
a) maintaining a pre-defined pressure thus keeping the resilient means sealed on said opening resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it;
b) activating said resilient means in case of obstruction of said reject line to push and compress the spring in case when the pressure of fluid exceeds pressure of said spring allowing the fluid to pass through said opening thus controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane
5. The method as claimed in claimed in claim 4, wherein said resilient means comprises diaphragm, plunger or flat seal like structure.
6. The method as claimed in claimed in claim 4, wherein said spring comprises compression spring, tension spring, torsion spring.
, Description:Field of Invention:
The present invention relates to the field of water purifier system. More particularly, the Invention provides a water purification system with an efficient fluid flow restrictor system thus controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane.
Background of the Invention:
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification technology that uses a partially permeable membrane to remove ions, molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, the applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pressure, a colligative property that is driven by chemical potential differences of the solvent, a thermodynamic parameter. Reverse osmosis can remove many types of dissolved and suspended chemical as well as biological impurities (principally bacteria) from water, and is used in both residential and industrial processes for the production of potable water. The result is that when pressure is applied to the concentrated or salt solution, the water molecules are forced through the semi-permeable membrane and the contaminants are not allowed to pass through the membrane and are retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and the pure solvent is allowed to pass to the other side. Figure 1 is a diagram outlining the process of Reverse Osmosis.
Reverse Osmosis works by using a high-pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all (around 95% to 99%) of dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water (figure 2). The more concentrated the feed water, the more pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure. The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate) stream (Figure 3).
In RO membrane filtration process, the concentrate feed water flows across the surface of a membrane. This employs cross filtration rather than standard filtration. In standard filtration, contaminants are collected within the filter media. But with cross filtration, the solution passes through the filter, or crosses the filter, with two outlets: the filtered water goes one way and the contaminated water goes another way. To avoid buildup of contaminants on surface of membrane, cross flow filtration allows water to sweep away contaminant build up. But if proper care is not taken, these contaminant concentration increases and membrane surface gets choked or get raptured.
US7550084B2 discloses an improved permeate storage arrangement that reduces backpressure within the system. The storage arrangement is adapted to pressurize permeate in a storage tank using concentrate water.
Flow Restrictor is a component added to the system to create backpressure in system. It is made of small size capillary tube. Pressurized water, passes through surface of membrane sheet to reject line through a capillary tube. Due to this, back pressure is created in the system. Water molecules on membrane surface are forced to pass through semi-permeable membrane sheet due to this back pressure. Due to repeated and high hardness, scale formation happens in and around the flow restrictor. This action leads to less or no flow through reject line and more pressure on RO membrane surface. This intern increases load on the membrane sheet. Due to this heavy load of contamination and the scaling on membrane surface, fouling or rapture of membrane happens.
US5503735A patent provides the system for purifying a liquid the invention specifically relates to an improved pressure and flow control system in a water purification system that uses reverse osmosis filtration.
In most of the cases, membrane surface gets choked/fouled because of three different type of condition:
1. Input water hardness increase beyond recommended limit provided by RO membrane manufacturer.
2. Flow Restrictor failure - Flow Restrictor is a component added to the system to create backpressure in system. It is made of small size capillary tube. Pressurized water, pass through surface of membrane sheet to reject line through a capillary tube. Due to this, back pressure is created in the system. Water molecules on membrane surface are forced to pass through semi-permeable membrane sheet due to this back pressure. Due to repeated and high hardness, scale formation happens in and around the flow restrictor. This action leads to less or no flow through reject line and more pressure on RO membrane surface. This intern increases load on the membrane sheet. Due to this heavy load of contamination and the scaling on membrane surface, fouling or rapture of membrane happens.
In current scenario, flow restrictor plays a major role in any RO system. RO membrane works on cross flow filtration. Higher the concentrated salts in feed water, higher the salt load in the reject line and on the membrane surface. Due to high impurities and scaling, flow restrictor gets choked. No reject water passes through it which creates more load on the membrane sheet. In this condition all the water molecules try to penetrate through membrane sheet because cross flow filtration is restricted due flow restrictor choking. The high concentrate of salts gets precipitated and deposited on the surface of the membrane. This results in pre-mature fouling of the membrane. Hence, there is a need of an efficient flow restrictor system and method thereof, to bypass the fluid in presence of obstruction thus reducing the load on the Reverse osmosis membrane and increasing its life.
Object of the Invention:
The primary object of the present invention is to overcome the limitation associated with prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an efficient flow restrictor system for reducing the load on the Reverse osmosis membrane.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a flow restrictor system to create back pressure in the reject line to maintain the required amount of flow rate and recovery and does not allow Reverse Osmosis membrane to foul or get choked.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a flow restrictor system to maintain membrane surface by high load of concentrate on its surface and due to cross flow of water that carries away all contaminants through reject line.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide cost effective solution to increase the life of the Reverse Osmosis membrane.
Yet another object of the present invention is to increase efficiency of the Reverse osmosis based water purifier system.
Yet another object of the present Invention is to provide method of operation of the efficient flow restrictor system reducing the load on the Reverse osmosis membrane.

Summary of the Invention:
In an aspect of the Invention, there is provided a water purification system controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane comprising:
a) atleast a reverse osmosis filter cartridge/membrane for purifying the water comprising an outlet port for dispensing the purified water and a reject line dispensing the concentrated water;
b) atleast a bypass line configured with a bypass mechanism adapted to be positioned in an opening area in said reject line, wherein said bypass mechanism comprises atleast a spring in connection with a resilient means;
where said reject line is optionally configured with a pressure controlling means, said pressure controlling means comprises flow restrictor, solenoid valve or like;
c) a flow restrictor configured to be connected to said reject line of said cartridge/membrane thus controlling the flow rate of water and creating back pressure on said cartridge,
d) a solenoid valve positioned parallel to said flow restrictor for bypassing water at regular intervals thus flushing off the deposited contamination on cartridge/membrane surface;
wherein said spring in connection with resilient means maintains a pre-defined pressure for creating a back pressure in said reject line holding said resilient means sealed on said opening if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it;
while said resilient means activates to open pushing/compressing the spring allowing the water to flow through it if the water pressure in said reject line is higher than said pre-defined pressure of said spring in connection with resilient means.
In another aspect of the Invention, there is provided a method of controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane by the water purifier as described above, comprising the following steps:
a) maintaining a pre-defined pressure thus keeping the resilient means sealed on said opening resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it;
b) activating said resilient means in case of obstruction of said reject line to push and compress the spring in case when the pressure of fluid exceeds pressure of said spring allowing the fluid to pass through said opening thus controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane

Detailed description of the drawing:
To further clarify advantages and features of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which is illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1: illustrates a Reverse Osmosis process in a system
Figure 2 and 3: illustrates working of RO membrane in a water purifier system
Figure 4: illustrates the working of flow restrictor and solenoid valve
Figure 5A , 5B, 5C: illustrates an embodiment of Solenoid Valve with Integrated Flow Restrictor by-pass mechanism
Figure 6A-6B: illustrates an embodiment of solenoid Valve with Integrated Flow Restrictor and flow restrictor by-pass mechanism.
Figure 7: illustrates an embodiment of Self-adjusting Flow Restrictor
Figure 8: illustrates performance of By-pass mechanism of the Invention
Figure 9: illustrates flow rate of the system
Detailed description of the Invention:
For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the invention and are not intended to be restrictive thereof. Throughout the patent specification, a convention employed is that in the appended drawings, like numerals denote like components.
The present invention provides an improved water purification system with an efficient bypass mechanism.
In an embodiment, the by-pass mechanism is provided with a spring or any other substance which can compress and absorb excess energy is provided. In this mechanism, a compressed spring with a plunger or diaphragm is set at a pre-defined pressure or tension. In a system when back pressure in the reject line crosses a certain limit of pressure, compressed spring with plunger experiences more pressure build-up on its surface and compresses more to release the excess pressure. This excess amount of pressure gets released by allowing water to pass through it. So the required amount of water gets compensated by passing through this new integrated mechanism. This maintains the required amount of flow rate and recovery and does not allow Reverse Osmosis membrane to foul or get choked.
To increase the life of membrane, solenoid valve is provided, which is connected in parallel to the flow restrictor in reject line (as illustrated in figure 4). Function of the solenoid valve is to pass large amount of water through it at regular intervals and due to this action, contamination deposited on membrane surface get cleaned up and flushed because of sudden high velocity of water flow.
In an embodiment, there is provided a water purification system controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane. The system comprises following components:
a) atleast a reverse osmosis filter cartridge/membrane for purifying the water comprising an outlet port for dispensing the purified water and a reject line dispensing the concentrated water;
b) atleast a bypass line configured with a bypass mechanism adapted to be positioned in an opening area in said reject line, wherein said bypass mechanism comprises atleast a spring in connection with a resilient means; In such embodiment, the reject line is optionally configured with a pressure controlling means where said pressure controlling means comprises flow restrictor, solenoid valve or like;
c) a flow restrictor configured to be connected to said reject line of said cartridge/membrane thus controlling the flow rate of water and creating back pressure on said cartridge;
d) a solenoid valve positioned parallel to said flow restrictor for bypassing water at regular intervals thus flushing off the deposited contamination on cartridge/membrane surface;
In an embodiment, the spring in connection with resilient means maintains a pre-defined pressure for creating a back pressure in said reject line holding said resilient means sealed on said opening if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it while said resilient means activates to open pushing/compressing the spring allowing the water to flow through it if the water pressure in said reject line is higher than said pre-defined pressure of said spring configured to be in connection with resilient means.
In an embodiment, said resilient means comprises springs or diaphragram. In some embodiment of the present invention, a resilient means according to the present invention may be a spring or a diaphragram which can compress and absorb energy. In some preferred embodiment the spring may be a compression spring, tension spring or torsion spring and the shape of the spring may be of coil spring, leaf spring, plate spring, a spring with leg or may be of spring washer or any suitable configuration. In some embodiment the diaphragram may be of an optimally adapted shape taking account of the respective function to be fulfilled.
In some preferred embodiment, compressed spring with plunger in a system experiences more pressure on its surface and compresses more to release the excess pressure. This excess amount of pressure gets released by allowing water to pass through it. So the required amount of water gets compensated by passing through the integrated mechanism.
In an embodiment, the by-pass mechanism comprises atleast a spring and a plunger or diaphragm. The function of spring is to absorb the energy or pressure and release excess pressure while the function of plunger or diaphragm is to provide sealing on opening surface. In normal condition, plunger will rest on opening surface from where water has to pass through during excess amount of pressure. Spring will be seated on plunger with required or preset amount of tension or stiffness.
In an embodiment, over the opening (which passes the fluid) there will be a plunger or flat seal or diaphragm to seal it, in normal condition. There will be a spring pushing the plunger or flat seal or diaphragm making sure that in normal condition of usage plunger doesn’t get dislocated from its position and proper sealing should happen. Now during working condition if pressure of fluid is less than spring tension, sealing will happen and fluid will not be able to pass through. But when excess amount of pressure is applied then plunger or seal will press or push spring which will get compressed and from sealing area fluid will pass through. This action can be continuous also or it can be cyclic also based on pressure condition of system.
In an embodiment, the bypass mechanism can act as a standalone mechanism to create backpressure to system without any flow restrictor. In such embodiment, if water has to pass through, it will need required amount of pressure to overcome stiffness of spring and unless spring is compressed it will not open passage to release excess amount of pressure. When water pressure exceeds spring stiffness, it will allow a portion of water to pass through plunger opening and hence because of this continuous phenomena, required amount of water will start to flow through reject line and in system due to continuous amount of backpressure, RO purification continues efficiently through membrane.
In an embodiment, the by-pass mechanism can be incorporated with Flow restrictor, in a water purification system. In this condition, once the flow restrictor gets choked or is blocked, the by-pass mechanism will get activated and water will pass through to avoid damage of RO membrane and pump.
In an embodiment, the by-pass mechanism can be integrated to Solenoid or any other pressure controlling means.
In an embodiment, the invention provides an efficient water purifier with bypass mechanism integrated with the flow restrictor with resilient means. The flow restrictors are used to create back pressure so that water molecules can pass through semi permeable membrane and leave behind higher concentration of salts on the surface of RO membrane. This higher concentration of contamination passes through the reject line. Even though contaminants pass through the reject line, some portion of it gets deposited on the surface of RO membrane. For the purpose of this embodiment, when the flow restrictor orifice gets blocked or gets partially choked, the impact will not get transferred to the membrane because cross flow filtration will continue due to new spring based bypass mechanism. By-pass mechanism will have a pre-set pressure beyond which its spring gets compressed and allows some amount of water to pass through the plunger. This maintains consistent amount of pressure and the excess pressure to pass through the by-pass mechanism. Therefore, the membrane surface does not experience the high load of concentrate on its surface and due to cross flow of water that carries away all contaminants through reject line.
In an embodiment of the present invention referring the figure 5A in order to clean up the deposited salts, a solenoid valve is provided in parallel to the flow restrictor so that periodically valve can open and allows large volume of water to pass through it. This will carry away maximum amount of deposited salts through the solenoid valve in reject line. Referring to the figure 5B in an embodiments in accordance with the present invention the valve stays in closed condition and does not allow any water to pass through it .
In Figure 5C the idle time, by-pass mechanism would be active when FR gets choked. At this point, when back pressure increases beyond the set limit, by-pass spring mechanism integrated with solenoid valve get activated and allow the required amount of water to pass through it is an embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
In an embodiment, the by-pass mechanism is integrated with the Solenoid Valve in a water purification system. As described above, flow restrictors is used to create back pressure so that water molecules can pass through semi permeable membrane and leave behind higher concentration of salts on the surface of RO membrane. This higher concentration of contamination passes through the reject line. Even though contaminants passes through the reject line, some portion of it get deposited on the surface of RO membrane. In order to clean up the deposited salts, a solenoid valve is provided in parallel to the flow restrictor so that periodically valve can open (Fig 2.1) and allows large volume of water to pass through it. This will carry away maximum amount of deposited salts through the solenoid valve in reject line. Rest of the time, this valve stays in closed condition and does not allow any water to pass through it (Fig 2.2). In that idle time, by-pass mechanism would be active when FR gets choked. At this point, when back pressure increases beyond the set limit, by-pass spring mechanism integrated with solenoid valve get activated (Fig 2.3) and allow the required amount of water to pass through it.
In an embodiment of the present invention, Solenoid Valve is integrated with Flow Restrictor and flow restrictor by-pass mechanism as provided by the present Invention. The said solenoid valve is integrated with FR and FR by-pass mechanism, with a provision to change FR whenever service technician goes for a regular preventive service maintenance. In normal mode when Solenoid valve is in closed condition, FR will be working that allows constant amount of water to flow through it (Fig. 6A). As soon as FR orifice gets salt particle deposition, back pressure of same increases and by-pass mechanism of FR gets activated (Fig. 6B) that allows water to pass through it and maintains regular FR flow rate. Apart from this, periodically solenoid valve gets open active and excess water passes through it.
In another embodiment, the by-pass mechanism is used to create back pressure without using any other flow restrictor (Fig. 7). The back pressure on RO membrane is created by adjusting the compression of adjustable diaphragm. This allows particular amount of water to flow through it. To achieve this, stiffness of spring is set to a particular pressure. Beyond that pressure plunger spring gets compressed and allows water to pass through it to release excess pressure. This mechanism maintains a pre-defined pressure range and does not allow the reject line to get choked.
In view of the above, the present disclosure provides new and improved water purification system. It should be understood, however, that the exemplary embodiments described in this specification have been presented by way of illustration rather than limitation, and various modifications, combinations and substitutions may be effected by those skilled in the art without departure either in spirit or scope from this disclosure in its broader aspects.
Performance:
An experiment was performed to evaluate the performance of the water purification system integrated with bypass mechanism of the present Invention as compared to the conventional system. The results reveals following:
1. Normal RO system choked at 948 liters of permeate water;
2. The advance recovery system 1 (water purifier without by-pass mechanism), choked at 2595 liters of permeate water
3. The advance recovery system 2 (water purifier without by-pass mechanism) choked at 2786 liters of permeate water
4. The advance recovery system with next generation FR- system 1 (water purifier with by-pass mechanism), as provided by the present Invention, choked at 10581 liters of permeate water
5. The advance recovery system with next generation FR- system 2 (water purifier with by-pass mechanism), as provided by the present Invention, passed 10455 liters of permeate water and tested for 13700 liters. After that testing was stopped because system was getting choked and test lab cannot engage one test rig particularly for this.
In another aspect of the Invention, there is provided a method of operation of the bypass system.
In an embodiment, the method of controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane by the water purifier as described above comprises following steps:
a) maintaining a pre-defined pressure thus keeping the resilient means sealed on said opening resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it if water pressure in said reject line is lesser than said pre-defined pressure resultantly not allowing the water to flow through it;
b) activating said resilient means in case of obstruction of said reject line to push and compress the spring in case when the pressure of fluid exceeds pressure of said spring allowing the fluid to pass through said opening thus controlling the blockage/obstruction of a filter/cartridge membrane.