When it comes to treating wastewater, you don’t want to leave anything to chance. If a wastewater treatment facility stops functioning properly, it can have huge impacts on the health and prosperity of the community it serves. The technologies you use to achieve your treatment goals have to work as reliably as possible. Ideally, the solution is simple, dependable, and easy to maintain. Nanobubble technology delivers those advantages while also improving treatment performance, reducing chemical use, lowering operating costs, and helping facilities manage changing influent conditions.
While early applications focused primarily on aeration, today’s nanobubble systems are used to enhance biological treatment, improve process stability, and address operational challenges that can be difficult or costly to manage with chemicals alone. Now, nanobubbles are used in tandem with aeration to enhance biological treatment. Nanobubbles help prevent quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), and FOG (fats, oils, and grease) from inhibiting biological wastewater treatment. Best of all, nanobubble systems have low capital and operations costs, simple maintenance requirements, and minimal energy consumption. Woodard & Curran has successfully deployed this technology in several industrial and municipal treatment facilities.
The problem with quaternary ammonia compounds
The average American has probably never heard of QACs, but they are everywhere. QACs are an active ingredient in many commercial disinfectants, and their use exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained high ever since. Food service operations, schools, grocery stores, gyms, and manufacturers of all kinds rely on QACs to protect their customers, staff, and products. Unfortunately, this can have significant negative impacts on wastewater systems.
QACs are slow to break down on their own, and impact the microbiology in wastewater treatment systems, especially nitrifiers, by killing or inhibiting them. This can lead to permit violations and negative ecological impacts. For many facilities, the ability to reduce reliance on specialty treatment chemicals may be one of the most compelling benefits of nanobubble technology. Lower chemical consumption can reduce operating costs, simplify inventory management, and decrease operational risk associated with dosing adjustments.
The properties of nanobubbles are ideal for binding to QACs and allowing for accelerated biological decomposition of the compounds. Starting in 2025, Woodard & Curran partnered with Moleaer to deliver nanobubbles to a confidential food and beverage client. The facility had been adding QAC neutralizers and had historically experienced scum caps in their process and would need to reseed their process after QAC overloads.
Since implementing nanobubbles, the facility has improved process stability, avoided reseeding following its annual clean-in-place event, reduced scum accumulation, and improved sludge settleability. The facility ultimately eliminated its QAC neutralizer program while maintaining effluent quality despite 35% higher flows and loadings.
Navigating the FOG, passing the sniff test
FOG is an omnipresent problem in wastewater systems. Major cities like London and New York are battling “fatbergs” in their collection systems, while smaller communities struggle to keep FOG from clogging their equipment and impeding treatment. Because FOG and QACs interact with wastewater treatment processes in similar ways, nanobubbles can provide benefits beyond biological treatment performance. Facilities may also see reductions in grease accumulation, maintenance requirements, and odor-control chemical consumption.
Wastewater treatment, collection and conveyance systems have the potential to create undesirable odors depending on a number of factors. One of the most bothersome odors is hydrogen sulfide (H2S) which occurs in raw wastewater and can be present in the collection and conveyance systems as well as the head of the wastewater treatment plant. A variety of odor control strategies are available to mitigate these odors including adding a bioxide to the treatment process.
At the Water Street Pumping Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, nanobubbles produced measurable operational and financial benefits. Over a two-year pilot, the technology reduced hydrogen sulfide concentrations by 68%, lowered bioxide consumption by nearly 40%, and generated approximately $200,000 in annual chemical savings. Reduced grease accumulation also cut wet well cleaning requirements, saving an additional $24,000 to $48,000 annually.
Implementation is simple
Because wastewater treatment facilities are always working, it can be difficult to integrate new technologies without interrupting operations. Operators have found the systems reliable, affordable, and easy to maintain. Unlike many process improvements that require significant infrastructure modifications, nanobubble systems can often be integrated into existing facilities with minimal disruption. This allows facilities to evaluate and deploy the technology without undertaking major capital projects.
Woodard & Curran has pilot tested and since permanently installed nanobubble systems in plants from 20,000 GPD to 2 MGD. Because we operate dozens of wastewater systems across the country, we can quickly test unique applications to confirm the performance of the technology for a particular client and community. Once confirmed, we have the know-how to get a permanent system running as promptly as possible.
Our experience across municipal and industrial facilities demonstrates that nanobubble technology is more than a treatment enhancement. It is a practical tool for improving process reliability, reducing chemical consumption, lowering operating costs, and helping facilities adapt to evolving treatment challenges. As operators look for simple, effective ways to improve performance without major infrastructure investments, nanobubbles are proving to be a valuable part of the solution.
