| The main goal of this project was to evaluate the application of a newly found micro-bubble generation technique to water aeration. The micro-bubble generation technique is a water-assisted method where a thin air stream, surrounded by a water stream that flows through an orifice is broken up into bubbles between 100 and 500 microns in diameter. The main advantage of this technique is that it eliminates any solid-gas surface free energy forces, which prohibit the "cheap" generation of micro-bubbles in today's aerators.;The project primarily consisted of designing, building and evaluating the performance of prototypes and testing them for stable operation. The prototypes were submerged in a test tank and evaluated on their ability to produce micro-bubbles, and later, on their ability to aerate.;Through experimenting with a first set of "single-stream" prototypes, it was found that this technique in its original working was unpractical even though it produced very good aeration efficiencies. Having demonstrated the aeration capabilities of single-stream prototypes, multi-stream prototypes were built and tested and it was found that their aeration capability was acceptable though their efficiency was much lower. Standard Aeration Efficiencies ranging between 3.00 and 6.00 lb/hp·hr were achieved. It is expected that the Standard Aeration Efficiency can be improved, as with almost all diffuser aerators, by submerging the aerator deeper under water. |
