Fawoo Nanotech unveils carbon-capturing bubbles

[Image source: Pixabay]

Fawoo Nanotech Co. is the world’s only company with the technology to create and commercialize ultrafine bubbles, or nano bubbles, in water.

Bubbles in water, like nano bubbles, have the power to attract surrounding substances. If there are smaller bubblers rather than a single larger bubble in the same volume of water, they absorb more gas by melting it.

The smaller the bubble diameter, the larger the surface area and the stronger the charge, making it easier for other substances to adhere to it.

Nano bubbles created using Fawoo Nanotech’s patented technology have a diameter of only 100 to 300 nanometers. There are 200 million to 600 million nano bubbles in one cubic centimeter of water, and up to 4.6 billion under certain conditions such as temperature.

Unlike ordinary bubbles, nano bubbles do not easily disappear in water and can last for about six months if well-preserved without external impact.

Fawoo Nanotech used its patented technology based on the principle that nano bubbles are generated when there is friction in the water and installed specially designed fins inside the tube. As water passes through the tube, the continuous friction between water and fins generates nano bubbles.

“The key is the technology to produce as many nano bubbles as possible with minimal energy usage,” Fawoo Nanotech chief executive officer Yoo Young-ho said. “We succeeded in being the first in the world to commercialize nano bubbles.”

Yoo emphasized that even Japanese companies that have put in over 30 years of research have failed to commercialize a similar technology.

Fawoo Nanotech’s technology has been patented in more than 30 regions, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, and the European Union.

Water containing nano bubbles can be widely used in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry, as it dissolves various gases quickly.

“Various carbon dioxide capture technologies have been developed so far, but there was no practical method to stably store the captured carbon dioxide until now,” Yoo said, highlighting why Fawoo Nanotech’s technology is gaining significant attention.

One industry showing great interest is the steel industry, which emits large amounts of carbon dioxide as a significant amount of sulfur dioxide, a pollutant, is generated as the iron is refined.

The steel industry currently uses sodium hydrogen carbonate to remove the sulfur dioxide, resulting in the production of sodium sulfate (Na2SO4).

Although there is currently no way to handle sodium sulfate without impacting the environment, sodium hydrogen carbonate is generated when sodium sulfate is mixed with water containing ammonia and carbon dioxide.

“Currently, steel mills are importing sodium hydrogen carbonate from China at a cost of 700,000 won ($524.9) per ton,” Yoo said, adding that using water with nano bubbles cannot only remove pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and sodium sulfate but also render import of sodium hydrogen carbonate unnecessary.

Water with dissolved carbon dioxide can be used in various other fields, such as producing baking soda, as it reacts with pollutants during the process of treating waste from electric vehicle batteries. It can also neutralize alkaline waste generated during the production of steel or aluminum.

Fawoo Nanotech, confirmed that when water containing carbon dioxide is mixed with cement, the production of concrete is expedited, and its strength increases by over 24 percent, in 2023 via joint experiments with a Korean university, The company is also conducting experiments on using water with nano bubbles mixed with bunker C oil to reduce emissions and save electricity in cooling towers installed in factories.