Tunable microbubble generator using electrolysis and ultrasound

Abstract

International audienceThis letter reports on a method for producing on demand calibrated bubbles in a non-chemically controlled solution using localized micro-electrolysis and ultrasound. Implementing a feedback loop in the process leads to a point source of stable mono-dispersed microbubbles. This approach overcomes the inertial constraints encountered in microfluidics with the possibility to produce from a single to an array of calibrated bubbles. Moreover, this method avoids the use of additional surfactant that may modify the composition of the host fluid. It impacts across a broad range of scientific domains from bioengineering, sensing to environment

A review on future wastewater treatment technologies: micro-nanobubbles, hybrid electro-Fenton processes, photocatalytic fuel cells, and microbial fuel cells

“…In general, water electrolysis consists of metal electrodes at anode and cathode terminal, solution (electrolyte), and voltage, as shown in Figure 2. Platinum microelectrode with a sharp conical tip is commonly used to produce dispersed micro-nanobubbles (Hammadi et al 2013;Achaoui et al 2017), where the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction can be observed using a high-speed visualization camera system (Li et al 2018(Li et al , 2019.…”

Water nanoelectrolysis: A simple model

“…Calibrated microbubbles were recently produced from nanoelectrolysis combined with ultrasounds using tap water (non-chemically controlled) solution. 24 In this paper, we show that calibrated microbubbles of any size can be obtained at a single site by nanoelectrolysis with a chemically controlled solution, by applying a suitable electric potential during a finite time.…”

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation Assessment of Inlet Configuration Influence on Enhancing Swirl Flow Microbubble Generator Performance

“…As a result of these features, the use of microbubble technology has been introduced in many environmental and industrial processes such as water purifcation process [7] to improve water quality of polluted lakes and marshes [8], separation process of low-density droplets including separation oil from oily water [9], and medical therapeutic applications [7]. Several techniques can be applied to generate microbubbles, including porous membrane [10], Venturi-type [9], electrolysis and ultrasound [11], a constant fow-nozzle [12], a swirling jet fow [1], and pressurized dissolution method [13]. Among these techniques, many advantages are provided by using a microbubble generator that uses swirl fow, involving low cost and simple design with high performance to generate very small bubbles [14].…”