Gas Infusion technology: An innovative way to oxygenate and treat wastewater

Abstract

Gas Infusion is a technology which promotes a high-rate of oxygen dissolution in aqueous streams and has been used in many processes that requires oxygen, such as aquaculture, aquifer remediation, algae bloom reduction, and beverage production, amongst others. Gas Infusion can maintain higher oxygen levels in liquids due to a proprietary gas-exchange process, allowing the introduction of pure oxygen in a bubble-less manner, creating a stable liquid stream containing enormous quantities of dissolved oxygen. The utilisation of Prosper’s Gas Infusion technology as the primary oxygen provider for a conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment is now the hypothesis to be proved. This paper evaluates Gas Infusion technology based on the results from full scale pilot plants developed for Canadian and Brazilian utilities. One of the goals of the pilots was primarily prove the efficacy of the process in terms of oxygen introduction and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) removal. Another goal was to get better understanding on how a full-scale system could be configured and the implications on capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX, respectively) of wastewater green-field plants implementation.