Pre-Treatment
Wastewater Sterilization
Enjoy greater operational continuity and solvency by efficient sterilization of stubborn contaminants like heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, surfactants, grease, etc.
- Industrial pre-treatment operators
- Food and beverage processing plants
- Rendering, meat and dairy processors
- Municipal wastewater utilities under load
- Lagoon and equalization basin operators
- Environmental compliance and EHS leads
The problem
Load The Plant Cannot Take
Industrial pre-treatment fails in a few repeatable ways. A high-strength slug from a rendering line, a dairy CIP cycle or a wash-down arrives at a plant sized for average load. Grease and surfactants foul screens and blind media, and heavy metals, bacteria and viruses pass through stages never designed to break them. Downtime and surcharges follow, and the receiving utility starts limiting what it will accept.
Municipal utilities under load meet the same physics from the other side. Without oxygen, aquatic life dies, eutrophication has contaminated over 2,300 lakes and rivers, and water-borne infectious disease carries more than $3.3 billion in healthcare cost. Deliberate contamination belongs on the same list, since poisoning the well is an age-old war tactic and remains a live water security scenario.
- High-strength slug loads arriving faster than the basin can equalize
- Grease and surfactants fouling screens, membranes and media
- Heavy metals, bacteria and viruses passing through conventional stages
- Chemical dosing that adds cost, handling risk and residuals
- Surcharges, exceedances and discharge limits that threaten continuity
How it works
Oxidant That Survives A Dirty Matrix
In a wastewater matrix the oxidant never gets a clean shot at the target. Solids, organic load and competing demand consume ozone before it reaches the surfactant or the pathogen, and a coarse-sparged dose loses whatever survives that to the headspace within seconds. Axbold shears ozone into nanobubbles averaging 76 nm at 220 million per mL, with 90% mass transfer of 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM) of gas into the fluid, so the dose stays in the water long enough to compete for it.
Those nanobubbles are electrically charged, highly pressurized, and can stay in solution for months. Persistence is what matters in wastewater, because stubborn structures break down under sustained contact rather than a single instantaneous dose. Ozone nanobubbles act at the functional group level, which is the basis for work against heavy metals such as selenium and arsenic, bacteria such as E. coli, viruses including SARS-CoV-2, and toxins such as plastic leachate.
Placement is in situ. The Guardian delivers up to 368 grams per minute of ozone, subject to generation capability, from a unit roughly 37 inches high and 82 pounds. It can be set on an equalization basin, lagoon, clarifier or holding tank without rebuilding the treatment train around it.
- Up to 368 grams per minute of ozone, subject to generation capability
- 90% mass transfer of 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM) gas into the fluid
- 76 nm average bubble size at 220 million nanobubbles per mL
- Charged, pressurized bubbles that stay in solution for months
- Air duty at 222 grams per minute; oxygen at 245 grams per minute, subject to generation capability
- IP68 Grade 316 stainless, floating, submersible, air-cooled or in-line
368 g/min
Ozone Delivery
Subject to generation capability
90%
Mass Transfer Into Fluid
Of 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM) gas delivered
2.7 kWh
Energy Consumption
79% less energy than conventional nanobubble units
2
Moving Parts
90% less servicing time than conventional nanobubble units
What changes
Continuity And Solvency
The commercial result is continuity — efficient sterilization of stubborn contaminants like heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, surfactants and grease, so the plant keeps accepting load and the discharge keeps clearing. Every program carries solution consulting, testing and data services, so the effect is established on your own effluent rather than argued from someone else's.
Cost structure is the other half of the case. The Guardian carries the running commitment on energy and a scheduled service visit, and neither moves with how much load the plant takes in a given week, so a slug that swings the influent does not swing the operating line.
Programs are shaped around how the risk presents. Proactive mitigates risk to water security on a persistent basis, Emergent remediates an active threat as a heavy duty oxidation project, and Embedded applies where the physical assets need to sit on your balance sheet.
- In-situ oxidation of heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, surfactants and grease
- 2.7 kWh per unit, 79% less energy than conventional nanobubble units
- 3,437 gas liters per kWh (908 gas gallons per kWh)
- Quarterly checkup of one hour or less across two moving parts, 10 year useful life
- IP68 Grade 316 stainless, solar-capable, single or three-phase 120/240V
- Portable in-situ deployment needs less permitting, equipment and space
Common questions
What log reduction does the system achieve?
Log reduction is matrix-dependent — solids, organic load, temperature, contact volume and which contaminants dominate all move it. What is fixed is the delivery: 368 grams per minute of ozone at 90% mass transfer into the fluid, held in solution rather than vented. Performance against your discharge limits is established by before-and-after testing on your effluent, carried in every program rather than sold as an add-on.
Does this replace our existing treatment train?
Usually not. The typical role is pre-treatment or in-line oxidation working alongside existing stages, which is how Desalus relies on Axbold for pre-treatment capabilities within its zero-waste water treatment services. Because the platform is portable and works in situ, it can be run on one basin first, before any decision about the wider train.
How does it act on grease and surfactants?
Grease and surfactants sit alongside heavy metals, bacteria and viruses in the contaminant set this duty targets. The mechanism is ozone oxidation at the functional group level, not physical separation, so it complements skimming and screening rather than replacing them. Dosing, contact volume and unit count are set during program design.
What does it take to keep one running?
Upkeep is scheduled rather than reactive — a planned visit on a fixed interval rather than a callout after something fails — and the interval holds whatever the influent does that week. With very few wear surfaces to attend to, servicing time runs 90% below conventional nanobubble units. Effluent chemistry is reviewed against the platform during program design, which carries solution consulting, testing and data services.
Related
Other water, same capability
Connect
Talk about wastewater sterilization
Tell us the water body, the contaminant or target, the volume and what you have already tried. That is enough for a useful first answer.