Tag Archive for: nano bubble

Freshwater environments across the globe continue to be threatened by the intrusion of brackish and salt-water for a variety of reasons. This puts naturally occurring groundwater and other freshwater stores at risk, even when they are not in close proximity to a coastline.

 

Within the United States, states such as California, Florida, Arizona and many others are among the areas where this is taking place. Regions in Asia, the Middle East and Africa have all seen freshwater supplies for agriculture begin to dwindle due to brackish water infiltrating natural freshwater reservoirs. Brackish salinated water results in plant stress for producers.  The instability created by this ecosystem change is a major concern in global food security.

 

Gaia, a global leader in the ultra-fine nanobubble technology arena has jointly been collaborating within the BioResource & Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) Department at California Polytechnic University (CalPoly), since 2017 to create a solution to this rising problem.

 

Department Head Dr. Peter Livingston, P.E., and Sara Kuwahara, Ph.D., of Cal Poly’s BRAE Department focused their research on finding ways to produce food in environments which are otherwise unsuitable for agricultural activity due to brackish/heavily salinated nature of their water sources. Their ongoing research has employed Gaia’s patented ultra-fine nanobubble oxygen technology to deliver targeted oxygen levels, along with trillions of nanosized bubbles allowing food to be grown in water containing up to 20,000 parts per million of salt.

 

In the Summer 2017 issue of Cultivate Magazine published by the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at CalPoly, Dr. Livingston speaks about the use of the Gaia Ultra-fine Nanobubble technology in delivering oxygen ultra-fine nanobubbles to research the potential of growing food in highly saline water.

 

Read the full article on page 10-11 here.

Gaia, a global leader in Ultra-fine Nanobubble technology, has collaborated with the Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at The University of Arizona (UA).

 

University of Arizona’s Isaac Hung demonstrated the potential benefits of injecting ozone gas, with Gaia’s ultra-fine nanobubble technology, to disinfect and reclaim wash water utilized in agricultural harvesting processes.

 

Conventional methods of washing freshly harvested produce use chemicals such as chlorine and large volumes of valuable water that are delivered from natural sources. Because of this processing approach, the wash water is normally discharged into wash basins or sewer systems after one use incurring extraordinary costs due to the processor’s disposal fees and their inability to recycle reclaim water for reuse. This wastewater contains disinfectant residuals, such as chloramines, chlorine, and chlorine dioxide. Such disinfectants preclude the wastewater from being recycled for other agricultural applications.

 

Ozonated water is approved by the USDA as an alternative to chlorine-based disinfection, most notably with Organic Certified Produce. The application of ozone in harvest processing is a disinfection solution without any residual chemicals, granting processors the opportunity to reuse the reclaimed water in processing and other agricultural activities. The nature of the ozonated water produced with Gaia ultra-fine nanobubble technology (0.1 microns or 100 nanometers in size) possesses an electrical charge on the outer shell. This electrical charge results in deeper cleaning and superior disinfection. With the added benefit of zero residual ozone due to the it’s short half-life, the ability to reclaim and recycle wash water results in lower costs, lower energy use and overall lower water usage.

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To read more regarding University of Arizona (UA) Issac Hung’s findings click here.