Treatment Stage
Water Treatment
Safely clean water with healthy oxidation and massive contact strength to eliminate nasty compounds, harmful substances, and other stubborn contaminants.
- Municipal drinking water utilities
- Municipal wastewater utilities
- Industrial process water teams
- Food and beverage plants
- Environmental compliance leads
- Contract operations firms
The problem
Contaminants That Survive The Train
Operators inherit whatever the catchment sends them, on the catchment's schedule. The US EPA puts polluted runoff at $1.1 billion in cost to states, and water-borne infectious disease adds more than $3.3 billion in healthcare cost. Neither load arrives at a convenient flow rate, and neither respects the design basis a plant was built against.
Gas transfer is usually the binding constraint on the response. Oxidant that rises and vents before it reacts is generation energy the plant has already paid for, so dosing is pushed higher to hold a residual and the difference leaves through the headspace. Adding a further unit process to correct for that runs into the other constraint, which is the footprint, power service and permitting a new stage would need.
- Runoff and industrial loads arrive unscheduled and vary with weather
- Oxidant vented at the surface is generation energy paid for and not used
- Residual-driven dosing over-corrects to cover transfer losses
- Pathogens, surfactants, grease and dissolved metals resist any single unit process
- Retrofit space, power service and permitting limit what can be added
How it works
Interfacial Area Does The Work
Advanced oxidation is a surface reaction, so the available gas-liquid interface governs how much of the dosed oxidant meets a contaminant. At the 76 nm average bubble size and 220 million bubbles per mL an Axbold Guardian produces, the dispersion presents contact area that a conventional diffuser cannot reach at the same gas flow.
Ozone nanobubbles shred toxins at the functional group level. Gas throughput is 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM) at 90% mass transfer into the fluid, and by mass the platform delivers up to 368 grams per minute of ozone, subject to generation capability. Because the bubbles are highly pressurized, electrically charged and persistent in solution rather than buoyant, the oxidant stays in contact with the water instead of surfacing.
On aerobic stages the same platform runs oxygen instead, up to 245 grams per minute and subject to generation capability, with oxygen nanobubbles improving oxygen transfer efficiency by 80,000 times. Air is the third option, where the objective is to activate aerobic growth rather than oxidize.
- Average bubble size 76 nm, NanoSight proven, at 220 million per mL
- Up to 368 g/min ozone or 245 g/min oxygen, subject to generation capability
- 90% mass transfer into the fluid at 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM)
- Oxygen nanobubbles improve oxygen transfer efficiency by 80,000 times
- Compact footprint at roughly 37 in high, 12 in wide, 8 in long and 82 lb
- Floating, submersible, air-cooled and in-line configurations
368 g/min
Ozone Infusion
Subject to generation capability
90%
Mass Transfer
Gas into fluid at 171.9 LPM
76 nm
Average Bubble Size
NanoSight nanoparticle tracking analysis
80,000x
Oxygen Transfer Efficiency
Improvement from oxygen nanobubbles
What changes
A Stage, Not A Plant
Axbold does not replace a treatment works and is not scoped to. It is an oxidation and gas transfer stage that enters a train already built, and its case rests as much on what it does not ask for as on what it delivers: no new basin, no civil works, no reagent to store, meter or account for, and no second process bolted on to recover oxidant that left through the headspace.
Mobility is as relevant as throughput to a plant with no room to give. In-situ deployment is portable and needs less permitting, equipment and space than fixed infrastructure, so a single Axbold Guardian can be trialed on one basin before the stage enters a capital plan.
- Retrofits into an existing train instead of replacing it
- Operates on 2.7 kWh, and moves 3,437 gas liters per kWh (908 gas gallons per kWh)
- 79% less energy, 72% greater aeration and 90% less servicing time than conventional nanobubble units
- Two moving parts, quarterly checkup of one hour or less, 10 year useful life
- Single or three-phase service at 120/240V, and solar-capable
- Testing and data services built into every water security program
Common questions
Does Axbold replace our treatment plant?
No. Axbold is a treatment stage, specifically an advanced oxidation and gas transfer stage, and it is designed to sit inside a train that already exists. Clarifiers, filtration, disinfection contact and solids handling all stay where they are. What changes is the efficiency and contact strength of the oxidation step. Run against high-strength industrial or municipal load, the same stage is wastewater sterilization duty.
Which contaminants does ozone nanobubble oxidation act on?
The target set is stubborn contaminants: heavy metals such as selenium and arsenic, viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, bacteria such as E. coli, surfactants, grease and plastic leachate. Which of those dominate a given stream, and at what dose, is established by testing on the water itself. What is fixed regardless of the stream is the delivery: 220 million nanobubbles per mL at an average of 76 nm, 90% mass transfer into the fluid, and ozone acting at the functional group level.
Why does bubble size matter more than gas volume?
Oxidation happens at the gas-liquid interface, and for a fixed volume of gas the interfacial area rises as bubble diameter falls. At 76 nm average diameter and 220 million bubbles per mL the contact area is far larger than a conventional diffuser produces at the same flow, the bubbles do not rise out of solution, and mass transfer into the fluid is 90% at 171.9 LPM (45.4 GPM).
What is involved in installing it?
Less than a new unit process. The constraint is service and mounting rather than floor area: what has to be settled is where the unit sits in the train, how it is anchored or mounted, and which existing electrical service it lands on. In-situ deployment needs less permitting, equipment and space than fixed infrastructure, though permit requirements remain site and jurisdiction specific and are confirmed during program scoping.
Related
Other water, same capability
Connect
Talk about water treatment
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.