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Maine DEP Monthly
Maine and WEF's
Penobscot Watershed and Development of a TMDL
Maine Rural Water
Maine
Wastewater Control Association |
Fine Bubble Aeration
If a given volume of air is broken into large bubbles, while an equal amount of air is broken into small bubbles, the smaller bubbles will create a greater opportunity for oxygen to transfer into the water. This is because the smaller bubbles will contain the same volume of air in a greater number of air bubbles. As the number of bubbles increase, so does the available surface area over which air can be transferred into water. Fine bubbles are much more efficient at transferring air because they create a larger transfer surface area per unit volume of added air. While coarse bubble diffusion efficiency may have an OTE of 0.75% per foot of pond depth, fine bubble systems may have an OTE of up to 2% per foot. This means that twice as much air can be transferred from the same air volume using fine bubbles as could occur using coarse bubbles.
As operators look to optimize their plants and streamline costs, many turn to
fine bubble technology. Compared to many older systems, fine bubble aeration can
reduce the power required to transfer oxygen (and its associated costs) by up to
50 percent. For more
information on the use of fine bubble aeration one may consult the Water
Pollution Control Federation's Manual of Practice FD - 13 entitled "Aeration".
Read another article on fine bubble aeration
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