RESERVOIR PURIFICATION BY USING MICRO-BUBBLE OXYGEN

In order to purify reservoir hypolimnion most efficiently, a new system was developed by using an oxygen micro-bubble aerator. Since the oxygen micro-bubbles show much higher solubility than the air micro-bubbles, dissolved oxygen in the hypolimnion was tremendously recovered and even over-saturated. In addition the micro-bubble oxygen scarcely agitated water and thus the thermal stratification was well preserved without generation of predominant vertical mixing. While the reservoir was suffered from serious deoxidation and contamination in the hypolimnion before the water purification, concentrations of nutrients, manganese and iron significantly decreased right after starting the hypolimnetic aeration. The hypolimnion is now almost free from contamination and the system successfully shows high performance of water purification.