Waste water-oil separator

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With today's increasing emphasis on environmental protection, there are very strict requirements on the quality of waste water which can be discharged into municipal sewer systems.
These requirements pose a particular problem for the disposal of waste water from railroad yards, since this waste water usually contains oil, sand and other debris which must be removed before the water can be discharged into a sanitary sewer system.
FIGS.
1-5 illustrate a preferred embodiment of my improved oil-water separator which provides an efficient and economical means for separating and removing oil and solid wastes from industrial waste water.
More particularly, and as shown in FIGS.
1, 2, 3 and 5, my improved oil-water separator apparatus includes a tank 10 which may be sunk in the ground 11.
Industrial waste water, containing oil, sand and other debris, enters the tank via a sewer inlet pipe 12 which extends through the left-hand end wall 14.
A flow control valve 16 is mounted in the sewer inlet pipe 12.
Mounted in the inlet chamber 18 of the tank 10 is a bar screen 19 for separating from the water large pieces of debris which may be removed manually.
The waste water then flows into the large settling chamber 20.
During the first stage of operation, to be described below, the liquid level in tank 10 is determined by the height of the water discharge weir 22 in the water discharge chamber 24.
This maximum liquid level height is shown by the dashed line 23.
Water flowing over the weir 22 into chamber 24 is discharged via the outlet pipe 26 through a flow control valve 28 into a settling or storage pool 30.
Mounted in the upper portion of settling chamber 20 is a plurality of channel weirs 32 whose upper edges 34 are above the liquid level line 23, i.
e.
, the height of the discharge weir 22.
As will be described in more detail below, oil floating on top of the water in chamber 20 flows over the top edges of channel weirs 32 and then into the discharge trough 36 from where it flows via an oil discharge pipe 38 to a suitable oil storage container (not shown)