The Engine of Clean Water: Aeration Systems and Biological Treatment in the Modern Era

By: Kate Chen
Email: [email protected]
Date: Nov 07th, 2025

Hangzhou Nihao Environmental Tech Co., Ltd. sits within the vital and rapidly expanding global industry of wastewater treatment and resource recovery. This sector is driven by two main forces: increasing global urbanization and industrialization, and stricter governmental regulations on effluent discharge quality.

The company's core business revolves around two complementary technology groups:

Aeration Systems (Oxygen Supply): The most energy-intensive component in a wastewater treatment plant, critical for supporting aerobic biological processes.
Biofilm Technology (The Microbe Habitat): Advanced media that houses the microorganisms responsible for breaking down pollutants.

Together, these technologies allow municipalities and industries to cost-effectively remove organic matter (BOD/COD) and essential nutrients (Nitrogen/Phosphorus) to meet environmental compliance.

Spotlight Product: The Fine Bubble Diffuser

The Fine Bubble Diffuser is arguably the single most important component in Hangzhou Nihao's aeration portfolio, representing the cutting edge of energy-efficient oxygen transfer.

What It Is & How It Works

A fine bubble diffuser is a device, typically a disc or tube, placed on the floor of an aeration tank in a wastewater treatment plant. It releases pressurized air into the water through tiny, uniformly spaced perforations in a flexible membrane (often made of EPDM or Silicone rubber).

The key principle is high-efficiency oxygen transfer:

Fine Bubbles: By creating very small bubbles (often 0.8 to 1.9 mm} in diameter), the device dramatically increases the total surface area for oxygen to transfer from the air bubble into the water.

Slow Ascent: Smaller bubbles rise much slower than the large, coarse bubbles created by older systems. This longer contact time significantly improves the Oxygen Transfer Efficiency (OTE).

Industry Impact and Market Trends

The Fine Bubble Diffuser market is experiencing robust growth (projected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% to 7% globally) driven primarily by the global demand for energy efficiency:

Feature	Fine Bubble Diffuser	Traditional Coarse Bubble / Mechanical Aeration
Oxygen Transfer	High Efficiency (Up to 40−60% OTE)	Low Efficiency (Often <15% OTE)
Energy Consumption	Significantly Lower	High (Primary energy cost of the plant)
Application	New systems, and retrofitting old plants	Older, less efficient systems

Companies like Hangzhou Nihao, with their deep experience in plastic manufacturing, focus on innovation in the membrane material (e.g., Bimodal Molecular Weight EPDM) and design to ensure lower pressure loss, resistance to fouling, and a longer operational lifespan.

Tube Settler Clarifiers (The Final Polish)

Once the biological process has consumed the pollutants, the dead microorganisms and residual suspended solids must be separated from the clean water. This is the role of the Tube Settler Clarifiers.

What It Is & How It Works

Tube Settlers are modular blocks of inclined plastic tubes (often PVC or HDPE) installed within a sedimentation basin (clarifier). They operate on the principle of lamella clarification:

Reduced Settling Distance: Instead of requiring solids to settle vertically across the entire depth of a deep tank, the inclined tubes drastically reduce the required settling distance.
Agglomeration: As solids settle onto the inclined surface, they agglomerate into larger, denser particles.
Gravity Slide: Due to the steep 60° angle of the tubes, these larger clumps of sludge rapidly slide down the channel and out of the tube area, dropping to the collection hopper at the bottom of the tank.

Industry Impact: Settling Capacity Multiplication

Tube Settlers are a simple, static product that delivers profound hydraulic benefits:

Flow Rate Increase: Clarifiers equipped with tube settlers can handle 2 to 4 times the flow rate of conventional clarifiers, allowing plants to process more water without increasing the tank size.
Effluent Quality: They dramatically improve the clarity of the water (reducing turbidity), which reduces the load on any downstream filtration equipment.
Cost-Effective Upgrade: For existing plants facing increased demand, installing tube settler modules is one of the most cost-effective ways to immediately increase clarification capacity and improve final effluent quality.

Complementary Technology: MBBR Media

It is important to note that the diffuser is often paired with one of the company's other major product lines: MBBR (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor) Media. MBBR media are small, high-surface-area plastic carriers (like the classic K1 or K3 media).

The Fine Bubble Diffusers ensure the aeration basin is fully oxygenated and continuously mix the water to keep the MBBR media suspended, allowing the healthy, high-density biofilm to thrive and maximize pollutant removal in a small, compact footprint. This combination of advanced aeration and biofilm technology is essential for modern, high-load water treatment solutions.

Hangzhou Nihao, leveraging its plastics expertise, manufactures these modules for easy assembly, installation, and robust performance in municipal sewage, industrial wastewater, and even drinking water applications.

In summary, Hangzhou Nihao Environmental is a leader because it provides the key polymer-based components for all three phases of high-performance biological treatment: