Nanobubbles are 70-120 nanometers in size, 2500 times smaller than a single grain of salt. They can be formed using any gas and injected into any liquid. Due to their size, nanobubbles exhibit unique properties that improve numerous physical, chemical, and biological processes.
Conventional aeration technologies achieve less than 3% oxygen transfer efficiency at standard conditions (SOTE) per foot of water. Third-party testing confirms that Moleaer’s nanobubble technology achieves >85% SOTE in just 2 feet of water, enabling dissolved oxygen (DO) levels to increase while using far less oxygen than any other aeration technology.
Nanobubbles are superior to all other scalable gas transfer methods because they:
Oxidation is a reaction caused by removing an electron from a molecule. The green patina on the copper of the Statue of Liberty is the result of an oxidation reaction. Oxidation is one of the most common methods for treating water and is used broadly via the addition of chemicals to disinfect water and remove contaminants.
Moleaer’s nanobubbles, as confirmed by third-party testing, produce the hydroxyl radical, one of the strongest known oxidants, using only air and water. The oxidative properties of Moleaer’s nanobubbles provide a chemical-free means for improving water quality. Nanobubble oxidation can be used to:
Nanobubbles naturally adhere to suspended, colloidal, and emulsified materials, causing them to clump together so they can be easily removed from water by filtration or flotation. When added to Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) processes, nanobubbles can improve solids removal while using up to 90% less energy than air saturators.
Nanobubbles have been used across various physical separation processes to remove:
Nanobubbles effectively prevent and remove unwanted buildup in wet environments. They scour surfaces in food washing, drip lines, swimming pools, and irrigation pipes, reducing the need for harsh chemicals that can damage pipes and filtration systems.
Nanobubbles are proven effective at:
Due to their size and structure, nanobubbles possess distinct properties that make them particularly effective at improving water quality, enhancing water treatment processes, and improving productivity in industrial and agricultural applications.
Nanobubbles behave differently from larger bubbles because they’re nanoscopic. All of their beneficial attributes — stability, surface charge, neutral buoyancy, oxidation, etc. — are the result of their size. These unique features enable nanobubbles to participate in physical, biological, and chemical reactions while also providing the most efficient gas transfer.
Nanobubbles have created a new frontier of science and engineering that is changing how entire industries utilize and treat their water. Moleaer’s technology and fundamental understanding of nanobubbles is continuously evolving with recent advancements in nanobubble production methods and ongoing discoveries around how to measure, manipulate, and apply nanobubble properties to solve customer problems.
Customers around the world trust Moleaer’s technology for its efficacy, reliability, and proven results. With over 1500 nanobubble systems in use, Moleaer’s technology treats more than 560 million gallons of water daily in everything from oil fields to greenhouses to reservoirs and fish hatcheries. These industry-leading qualities come from Moleaer’s commitment to constant progress: our engineering team conducts extensive laboratory and field research to continuously identify the beneficial properties of nanobubbles and validate the value they deliver to our customers.
Our efforts to advance the science of nanobubbles and push the industry are supported by an array of partners, including acclaimed universities and research institutes. This ensures our products are tested by third-party experts to validate the efficacy of nanobubbles: UCLA professor and aeration expert Michael Stenstrom reports, "Moleaer's nanobubble generators provide the highest oxygen transfer efficiency of any aeration technology I have tested." ASU confirmed the oxidative properties of Moleaer nanobubbles and the formation of hydroxyl radicals in their study. Virginia Tech proved that Moleaer’s nanobubbles eliminate pathogens like E. Coli and Listeria on surfaces within five minutes of exposure. Further, the size and concentration of Moleaer’s nanobubbles have been validated by multiple independent researchers using Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) — full NanoSight report here.
Nanobubbles are generally classified as being less than 200 nanometers (nm) in diameter. Moleaer’s patented nanobubble generation method is the only scalable method in the industry that consistently produces high density solutions of optimally sized nanobubbles, averaging 100 nm in diameter and ranging between 70 and 120 nm. Nanobubbles of this size are stable in liquid because they have reached equilibrium with bubble surface tension, internal pressure, external pressure, surface charge, and their environment. Their stability and size give them neutral buoyancy. The net effect is that, once injected, nanobubbles are ready to react - they remain suspended in solution and disperse until they interact with surfaces or contaminants.
Their unique characteristics enable nanobubbles to participate in a wide range of reactions. This, even more than efficient gas transfer, reveals the truly revolutionary potential of nanobubbles: they can replace or significantly reduce harmful chemicals and the infrastructure traditionally required to treat water. Nanobubbles can be used to improve the efficiency of a broad spectrum of chemical, biological, and physical processes. Nanobubbles remove impurities and pathogens from wet environments, making them incredibly effective at improving production and processes across many industries and applications.
Nanobubbles can also participate in reactions due to their strong negative surface charge and other force attractions. Like a magnet, nanobubbles will be attracted to and attach to fine particulates, colloids, oil droplets, other contaminants, and surfaces — in particular, nanobubbles are attracted to target substances like organics, oils, residual hydrocarbons, surfactants, grease, and fats. When enough nanobubbles attach to a tiny particle or droplet, its density decreases, enabling it to separate from the water around it so the particle can be removed by flotation or filtration.
In water treatment, chemical oxidation is typically achieved using ozone, UV, or harsh chemical treatments. Nanobubbles can achieve this same oxidative effect using only air and water. Their size gives them stability and a strong negative surface charge that increases the rate of interaction between nanobubbles and water impurities. When stimulated, nanobubbles destabilize, resulting in hydroxyl radical (OH) formation. Hydroxyl radicals are in a highly oxidative state so they rapidly destroy water contaminants by breaking apart their molecular structure.
Moleaer nanobubbles are more efficient, last longer, and are often more cost-effective than other gas transfer solutions. They have created a revolution in the field of oxygen transfer, commonly referred to as aeration or oxygenation. Since nanobubbles are neutrally buoyant, they disperse throughout a water body, delivering oxygen to the bottom of a water column (i.e., near the bottom of a lake), as well as near the surface. Nanobubbles accumulate in water to create a reserve of entrained oxygen - up to 20% greater than the gas saturation point - so DO remains stable longer. This combination of features enables Moleaer’s nanobubbles to provide highly efficient and consistent gas transfer across a broad range of water treatment processes. Moleaer’s unmatched nanobubble production rates across a wide range of liquid flow capacities makes nanobubble treatment possible for both small and large scale processes.