Water Towers

Water in a cooling tower basin, a buffer tank or the lower reaches of a storage tower sits at very low velocity, and that is the condition biofilm needs. Bacteria attach within hours, secrete a polymer matrix, and within days that matrix shelters what lives inside it from the disinfectant in the bulk water.

An oxidising biocide is spent at the outer layer of that film, so organisms deeper in see a fraction of the dose. The usual response — higher dose, shorter interval — buys cost, corrosion risk and discharge chemistry without touching the substrate.

Nanobubble treatment works on the substrate. Bubbles under 200 nm carry a strong negative zeta potential, attach to organic matter and fine solids, and float them where a filter or a bleed removes them — 80 %+ suspended-matter removal, 50 %+ turbidity reduction in NanoMAR's published figures. The mechanism is set out in our technical explanation.

Legionella is a biofilm organism. It multiplies inside the film and the amoebae that graze on it, which is why a scheme measuring only the bulk water can look compliant while the risk sits on the wall.

NanoMAR publishes no log-reduction figure for Legionella, and we would be sceptical of any supplier offering one without data from your own water. Our claim is narrower and testable: nanobubble treatment reduces suspended and organic matter, holds dissolved oxygen where a volume would otherwise turn anaerobic, and — with ozone — carries the oxidant to the wetted surface rather than spending it in the bulk.

Compliance does not move. Risk assessment, temperature control, sampling and records are unchanged by fitting a unit, and no supplier should say otherwise. Treat it as a way to lower the biofilm burden your scheme manages, then prove it on a measured trial — our pilot and reporting method sets out how.

Elevated tanks and service reservoirs fail differently. The water arrives clean; the problem is time. Where demand has fallen below the volume the structure was built for, turnover slows, the tank stratifies, residual decays, and the oldest water leaves last.

Be clear about the claim. NanoMAR makes no drinking-water safety claim and does not offer nanobubble treatment as a substitute for the disinfection regime your regulator requires; that is a matter for the water authority, not an equipment supplier. Ozone in potable service must be specified with them.

The mechanism is the one that works in any industrial loop. Nanobubbles hold gas in the water column for days instead of minutes, mix a stratified volume without the shear of a mechanical mixer, and carry the charge that lifts fine particulate out of suspension.

NanoMAR publishes no prices and no payback periods, because neither would survive contact with your site. What we can do is name the lines that move when dosing gives way to continuous physical treatment.

• Consumables. Dosing is a recurring purchase for the life of the plant; a unit is capital, energy and gas.
• Handling. Storage, bunding, spill procedure and the paperwork around a hazardous stock go away.
• Discharge. Blowdown with no treatment chemistry in it is cheaper to consent and to monitor.
• Cleaning downtime. Usually the largest line, and the least predictable without a trial.
• Energy. The unit and its pump draw power continuously; count it honestly.

The variables behind a quotation are on the price and sizing page, and a first pass at the numbers gives a starting duty. The full model range runs to 1 000 m³/h on the NanOxy S1 membrane platform.