What is “water treatment” and what does a water treatment expert or water treatment consultant do? First, let define the term. The short version of water treatment technology is that which uses kinetic energy (not thermal energy) to convert water to vapor form via mechanical means. The energy usage by using this system is far less than that of conventional distillation technologies and certainly has applications in many areas of water purification processes. This is probably more efficient than RO systems currently used in the desalination industry.
Technology using mechanically produced microbubbles/nano droplets to purify water and separate liquids describes a method of producing water vapor that represents disruptive technology. Disruptive in that the vaporization of liquid becomes an exothermic reaction instead of the endothermic reaction we are accustomed to when we think of vapor/steam processes – greatly reducing the amount of energy required to produce water vapor.
Normally when one thinks of industrial scale water evaporation and purification systems, we naturally envision systems of adding heat to water to bring it to the boiling point and then continuing to add heat to produce steam (steam evaporation or flash evaporation). Recent research has shown that the physics of how water evaporates has some surprises. These relate to the form of the water, whether the water is in a pool/container, in bubble form, or in micro-bubble form. It turns out that micro bubbles offer some serious advantages for water to turn from a liquid into the vapor form. This has been shown to be the result of micro bubbles producing nano-droplets of water that have a greatly reduced surface tension, which in turn leads to an almost immediate conversion from liquid to vapor state – and in the process of vaporization, releasing energy for an exothermic reaction. In work by Zimmerman et.al., (2013) the authors concluded that “With microbubbles, the internal mixing dominates and there is a maximum absolute humidity achieved in a very short residence time.” The authors also concluded “that in the competition between vaporization and sensible heat transfer of the liquid element on the skin of the microbubble, the “race” is won immediately by vaporization.”
In more common and direct terms, using micro bubbles/nano droplets can result in a very low energy cost in achieving water vaporization. This, in turn, offers a multitude of low energy, low cost opportunities for water purification and liquid separation systems (see additional references below).
The disruptive technology that have been developed and patented are low energy mechanical system creating micro bubbles which in turn produces nanodroplets which immediately become water vapor and then re-condensing the water vapor to produce purified water. They have also patented a use for this system to be a low energy way of separating liquids based on different vaporization points (i.e., ethanol separation in fuel ethanol production systems). These are all things the water treatment expert can assist with.
At Lee Enterprises Consulting, we have highly qualified water treatment experts available to assist you with any water treatment related matter. Take a look at our experts and the services we provide and you will see that we have just the right expert for any clean energy project. Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters. For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact. Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.
Lee Enterprises Consulting (LEC) offers expertise in wastewater treatment, water treatment, and a wide range of services in biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis. The company has business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans and bio market research. The company also offers technical and engineering related services like techno economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis and expert witness engagements. The company also has strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement. With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting also has experts in anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen. This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one stop shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.
Look at our experts and the services we provide. Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters. For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact. See video about LEC here. Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information. See also Wastewater Treatment Expert and Water Management in Biomass Processing.
