Breakthrough water tech uses electrical pulses to clean and sanitize water

via OriginOil

A new type of water cleanup technology that can effectively and efficiently remove organic contaminants from large quantities of water, without using any added chemicals, could be a huge step forward for aquaculture and the world’s growing farmed fish operations.

In 2011, the production of farmed fish worldwide surpassed global beef production for the first time, and the industry shows no sign of slowing down. However, producing fish at those levels comes with its own set of challenges that require solutions, including the need to constantly remove ammonia and kill harmful bacteria and other aquatic pathogens in the water.

The new water cleanup technology, Electro Water Separation™ (EWS), is said to be a three-in-one solution that could lead to a more sustainable and viable farmed fish industry, because it not only cleans and sanitizes both the supply and the discharge water cost-effectively, but it can also harvest algae for use as fish feed. The discharge waters, which are nitrogen-rich, can then be used to feed the algae ponds, which may help aquaculture operations to “close the loop” a bit more.

The EWS technology works in two stages:

• Electro-Coagulation: contaminated water enters the first stage, which is a proprietary electro-coagulation process. In this stage, mild electrical impulses are applied in long tubes, causing the organic contaminants to coagulate, or “clump” together.
• Electro-Flotation: the clumped-up material travels into a second stage where low power electrical pulses generate a cloud of micro-bubbles that gently lifts the concentrate to the surface for harvesting.

Originally developed as part of OriginOil’s algae systems, the EWS system is capable of removing up to 99% of the water for algae harvesting, and can extract more than 98% of the biomass in the first pass. In addition, the EWS system can remove 98% of bacteria from harvested algae, which helps to keep it for rotting for up to 5 days, without refrigeration.

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