Extent and persistence of dissolved oxygen enhancement using nanobubbles

In this study, change in water-dissolved oxygen (DO) was analyzed under various synthetic water qualities and nanobubbles (NBs) application conditions, such as gas type, initial DO as well as water dissolved, suspended and organic matters contents. When oxygen, rather than air, was introduced into nitrogen-desorbed ultra-pure water, the stagnation time was significantly increased. It took ten days for DO concentration to drop back to saturation. The higher the initial DO concentration, the longer particles were observed above saturation due to particle stability improvement. The oxygen mass transfer rate of 0.0482 mg/L/min was found to reach a maximum at an electrolytic concentration of 0.75 g/L, beyond which the transfer rate decreased due to adsorption of negative ions of the electrolyte at the interface. High levels of turbidity caused by suspended solids have become a barrier to dissolution of NBs oxygen into the water solution, and thus affected the transfer performance. On the other hand, by applying NBs for just an hour, up to 7.2% degradation of glucose as representative organic matter was achieved. Thus, NBs technology would maintain a high DO extent for an extended duration, and thus can improve water quality provided that water chemistry is closely monitored during its application.