Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

AN ADVANCED MICROBUBBLE GENERATOR AND ITS APPLICATION TO A NEWLY DEVELOPED BUBBLE-JET-TYPE AIR-LIFT PUMP

2007; Begell House; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1615/multscientechn.v19.i4.20

1943-6181

Michio SADATOMI, Akimaro KAWAHARA, Fuminori Matsuyama, Takanao Kimura,

Coastal and Marine Dynamics

An advanced microbubble generator with a spherical body in a flowing water tube was patented by Sadatomi in 2003. The generator can suck air by a vacuum pressure behind the spherical body and has three advantages over existing generators: (i) its fabrication is easy because of a simple structure; (ii) it can produce any sizes of bubbles by controlling the flow rates of air and water introduced; and (iii) it requires less electric power. In the present paper, a simple model has been presented to predict its performance, i.e., the bubble generation rate (= air suction rate) and the water pressure at the generator inlet, when water is supplied at different rates to the generator at different water depths. From the validation test of the model against the present experimental data, it has been clarified that the model can predict reasonably well. As an industrial application of the generator, a bubble-jet-type air-lift pump with the generator at the riser bottom is presented together with the results of its feasibility test. In the field test, the air-lift pump could lift up water with fine sediments from the seabed in Amakusa Islands, leading to the purification of seawater there.