plasma reactor
plasma reactor in off position

Our customers need improved, lower-cost oxidation methods for ultrapure, process, and wastewater applications to remove organics and for microbial elimination. The Symbios TPR4000™ is the solution that can increase productivity and product quality for manufacturing processes, improve water treatment economics for utilities, provide new wastewater, chemotherapeutic, and anti-infective treatment for healthcare, and facilitate flow back and produced water cleanup and reuse for oil & gas extraction.

The Symbios TPR provides lower-cost, higher performance, more effective disinfection, and is able to remove emerging contaminants, reduce RO fouling and costs, and reduce post-MBR odor and residual organics when compared to established, chemical additive treatment and traditional advanced oxidation processes.

Technology Advantages:

The Symbios Tubular Plasma Reactor system has the following advantages:

  • Destroys organic compounds, rather than just removing them (i.e. there is no reject stream requiring subsequent treatment)
  • Destroys many organic compounds that are recalcitrant in other treatment systems including pesticides, organic pollutants, PPCP’s, and pathogens – without the need for any additional chemicals and without the formation of toxic byproducts
  • Disinfects water without any chemical addition (avoiding associated side reactions and feed control challenges)
  • Serves as a superior pre-treatment system for membrane filtration systems (especially RO, which is prone to biological growth and thus high maintenance costs)
  • The requirement of toxic and expensive membrane cleaning chemicals (strong acids, strong caustics, bisulfites) can be kept to a minimum, saving operational costs, environmental risk, and operator exposure
  • Reduces frequency of cleaning filter membranes which cuts system downtime, reduces water consumed for flushing, reduces frequency of membrane replacement, and thereby reduces operational costs
  • Reduces tendency of fouling while maintaining a high membrane flow rate, and lessens power consumption, further reducing operational costs
  • Responds quickly to changing conditions or quality of the feed water
  • Provides cost-effective treatment- for example, fracking produced water at an estimated cost of $0.01/bbl
  • Readily scalable, from a small size to skids of multiple reactors deployed in parallel to process 7,000 bbl/day or more with a footprint smaller than a semi-trailer, to a one reactor system inline with medical wastewater in a small hospital or clinic

Technology Overview:

TPR

Illustration of TPR4000 design and operation

The patented Symbios TPR4000™ Plasma Oxidation System is a low-power, plasma-based, advanced oxidation technology. The unique design of the TPR combines a continuous mixing mechanism with an air-enhanced plasma discharge system. Contaminated liquid enters from the top into the treatment chamber and is turbulently mixed and constantly exposed to the plasma nozzles. A low voltage is applied across the plasma nozzle and the discharge area while the plasma nozzle spindle continuously rotates and discharges under the support of air. The resulting plasma oxidation products are purged out of the chamber into the air as trace amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The unique design of the TPR4000 includes a negatively-charged cathode at the core of the apparatus with electrode pins protruding out toward an outside, positively-charged anode cylinder wall and is spun at 1000 rpm. While the cathode is spinning, the contaminated water is introduced at one end and exits out the other end and low voltage plasma is formed between all the pins and anode wall. The plasma produces high-energy electrons and interacts with water to produce hydroxyl radicals that effectively oxidize organic contaminants and convert them into carbon dioxide (CO2). Not only has this new design proved effective in treating water, but it is scalable (in length of the tube and diameter) in continuous water flow mode and can be expanded with parallel reactors to treat even larger volumes of water.

Product Features:

  • Nonthermal plasma oxidation system
  • Microbial and organic contamination control without chemicals
  • Requires only air and electricity to directly and continuously disinfect process waters
  • Residual peroxone disinfectants for downstream control of microbial regrowth
  • Multi-mode action using UV light, radical oxygen species, and low-level oxidants (hydrogen peroxide, ozone, and others)
  • Modular and scalable to your application
  • Low-power and compressed air requirements for seamless integration into your facility
  • Automated and microprocessor-controlled with a user-friendly control interface
  • In-line monitoring of effluent water quality
  • Complete rack enclosure with included safety features

Product Benefits:

  • A safer alternative to acid and chlorine-based chemical additives
  • No toxic byproducts – all components naturally break down to water and oxygen
  • Cost effective, eco-friendly, and energy-efficient
  • Adaptable to variable influent waters
  • Capacity to handle high levels of dissolved and suspended solids