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Refined Petrol Stations

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20.02.2002

There are always oil spots near the petrol stations. Rainwater washes them away, polluting the environment. Researchers from Perm have developed a refining unit for cleaning rainwater sewage from petrol stations. It was successfully tested in Moscow and Perm.

The unit base is a new filter - "Kombi" - made of fibrous carbon sorbent, which is produced by coagulation of chemical cellulose fibres in a special way. The filtering process consists of three stages - settling, refinement through the mechanical filter and two-stage sorption extra refinement. At first, rainwater gets into the settling unit - a huge vat, where big insoluble particles of mud settle on the bottom.

The settled water is then refined through the mechanical filter - metal net. It clears the water from smaller particles. After the first two stages the suspension concentration is diminished by one hundred times. Then comes the two-stage refinement. Water gets twice through the "Kombi" filters with carbon fibrous substance, which extracts oil-products out of it. After these three stages the water becomes one and a half thousand times clearer.

The unit takes little place - several square meters. Forty petrol stations in Moscow and two in Perm are already working with the refinement unit.

Irina Marutsenko | Source: alphagalileo

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