Seven sectors, seven different bottlenecks

Sources are given in each section below. Where a figure comes from a third-party case study rather than our own project, it is attributed to that supplier by name — including when they are a competitor.

1 · Municipal wastewater: oxygen where the biology is

Aeration accounts for roughly half of a municipal plant's electricity, and most of it is lost to the atmosphere in the top two metres of the basin. Two mechanisms follow: finer bubbles transfer more oxygen per kilowatt-hour, and a longer residence time means the same dissolved oxygen can be held with less blowing.

At the Nevada plant, nanobubble units added to an existing aeration basin lifted dissolved oxygen, cut aeration energy and narrowed the ammonia excursion band. At Lodi, California, the operator's own description was that recovery after an ammonia shock was faster than they had seen before. The supplier's published range for these deployments is up to 20% more treatment capacity and up to 40% lower energy and chemical demand.

Source: Moleaer published case studies (Nevada WWTP, City of Lodi). Third-party figures, attributed as such. Our own equivalent duty uses ARFU flotation for solids and CRP generators for oxygen.

2 · Industrial wastewater: avoid the expansion

A cheese plant in Wisconsin was facing a capacity ceiling. Rather than build, it put nanobubble flotation ahead of its anaerobic treatment, which let it plan an additional 20 million pounds of cheese and whey product over three years while avoiding a $10 million capital expansion. Biogas yield rose 98%.

The mechanism is not mysterious: more of the organic load is captured as float and directed to digestion rather than lost to the effluent, and the digester feed is more consistent. Greer, a food processor, saw foam collapse after installation — a smaller change with a large operational value, because foam is what forces plants to derate.

Source: Meister Cheese and Greer case studies published by Moleaer; quoted figure from the plant's own master cheesemaker.

3 · Oilfield produced water and mine water

Free oil above about 20 µm floats readily. Below 10 µm, buoyancy is too weak and the droplet needs a bubble to attach to. That is the entire commercial argument for nanobubble flotation in produced water.

Documented range: 200–2,000 mg/L oil in water at the inlet, below 10 mg/L at the outlet, in a three-stage configuration. For mine water, the reference project is Cui Jiagou: 2×75 m³/h, flotation followed by 20 nm SiC membrane, effluent 0.18 NTU, TSS removal 94%.

Source: ARIFU acceptance reports (scheme ARFU-2025-083 for Cui Jiagou, ARFU-2025-099 for Keshiketeng oily wastewater).

4 · Aquaculture: the oxygen has to be at the bottom

In a deep pond, the surface reads 7 mg/L while the sediment reads zero. Fish sit in the middle, faeces accumulate below, and the sludge layer consumes oxygen faster than diffusion replaces it. Surface aeration does not solve this; it just moves the same oxygen around the top.

Rostein's land-based salmon facility measured 86% oxygen transfer efficiency with nanobubble equipment against 41% for the conventional system, which translates to roughly half the energy for the same dissolved oxygen. We also quote 60% lower oxygen cost and a 10% survival improvement from field comparisons — the second figure depends heavily on stocking density and feed load, and we would not guarantee it without a trial.

Source: Rostein facility measurement as published by the customer; ARIFU LOT-series field data from pond and RAS installations.

5 · Agriculture and greenhouse

Roots respire. If the root zone is hypoxic — which in a hydroponic system is the normal condition, not the exception — nutrient uptake falls regardless of what is in the solution. Oxygenated irrigation water addresses that directly.

In the Delphy comparative trial on strawberries, yield rose 14% and root-zone pathogens fell 74%. At Prominent Grevelingen in the Netherlands, recirculated irrigation water cleared within three months and summer production recovered to normal. Published gains from oxygenated irrigation elsewhere run 10–43% depending on crop and baseline.

Source: Delphy and Prominent Grevelingen case reports published by Moleaer; the 10–43% range is that supplier's published agricultural figure, not our measurement.

6 · Cooling water: descaling without dosing

A 1 mm scale layer costs roughly 8–10% of heat-transfer performance, and it does so silently. The Armstrong route — a passive static device in a slipstream — has been running on building hot-water and cooling systems for years, with no chemicals and no shutdown. We make the equivalent, plus an active generator version for larger loops.

Source: Armstrong International product and case documentation; GRCC customer interview published by Armstrong. Full treatment on the descaling page.

7 · Lakes, rivers and reservoirs

Black-odour water is a symptom of sediment oxygen demand. Once the sediment is oxygenated, phosphorus release slows, algae lose their advantage, and submerged plants return. At Lake Elsinore in California, sediment dissolved oxygen rose from 0.5 to 4.4 mg/L and the lake had its first cyanobacteria-free summer in more than a decade; the city subsequently attributed about $900 million of local investment to the water quality recovery.

Source: City of Lake Elsinore public statements; Moleaer reports more than 550 water bodies treated. The $900 million figure is the mayor's public characterisation, not an audited number.