Markets Receptive to SSI Ultra Fine Bubble Diffusers
By: Tom Frankel
Post Date: August 27th 2008
The summer of 2008, as electricity rose over $0.15 cents/kWh and gasoline rose above $4/gallon, it is said that we crossed a tipping point. For drivers it meant switching from SUV’s and big sedans to Yaris’, Versas, Cobalts, and Focus’s. At wastewater treatment plants across the US, and in consulting engineers offices, there has been a renewed focus on plant operating efficiency.
As a result, (3) new players entered the US market with high speed turbo blowers this year. These include K TurboTM, NeurosTM and HSI/Aentl. Over the course of the next year we can expect more of the same.
However in the fine bubble diffuser market, there have been few viable alternatives to date for true ultra high efficiency products. Granted, there are panel diffusers which produce high Standard Oxygen Transfer Efficiencies ( SOTE ). However from what we have seen and heard, those products tend to be associated with high headloss and most of them are designed without a piping system. Thus purging condensate can becomes an issue. Many of the panels on the market are made of Polyurethane which requires a frequent relaxation period of 30 minutes, during which time that section of the basin is not aerated.
Finally most of the ultra fine bubble diffuser manufacturers make only ultra fine bubble diffusers. Hence ultra fine bubble diffusers will be recommended for every job, even for the wrong job, such as a tank that’s too deep for ultra fine bubble, or for a tank with too long of an HRT (requiring a sparse rather than dense diffuser density).
Ultimately the end result in some cases Standard Aeration Efficiency ( SAE ) similar to or slightly less than conventional fine bubble diffusers, with some inherent problems and maintenance requirements.
SSI proposes to solve these problems with our ultra fine bubble disc diffuser. The company is a full line manufacturer of disc diffusers and tube diffusers already, and the ultra fine bubble diffuser from SSI is produced with the same reliable EPDM formulation we use in our disc diffusers and tube diffusers, in the same plastic housing used for existing diffusers. It requires a piping system and a moisture purge system is used in all cases to remove condensate. No relaxing is required. And headloss is comparable to other fine bubble diffusers on the market, which are producing much larger bubbles.
The time is right for the right ultra fine bubble diffuser product, offered by a company that can always recommend the right product for the job, not their only product for the job.