March 16, 2021
From Puerto Montt, the Kran project offers a “green” alternative to maintain or recover the natural properties of aquaculture, agricultural and water treatment spaces. Manuel Vial, Head of Research and Development at Kran, explains some of the functions and applications that can be given to this new science.
From the city of Puerto Montt, in the Los Lagos region, businessman Jaime de la Cruz (55), inspired by a seminar on new technologies he attended six years ago, decided to build a project that is advanced in technology and sustainable over time. “In a seminar someone said, ‘The businesses of the future will be those in which we give back to the earth what we have taken from it.’ And it stuck with me so much that I hired an engineer with the sole purpose of finding me entertaining projects that had three pillars: that were high tech, at the frontier of science, and that were 100% green.” That’s how this nanobubble project was born, explains the founder of Kran.
De la Cruz has been involved in the salmon industry for more than 20 years: he was general manager of a salmon supplier, advisor to Salmones Chile and also has his own packaging company for salmon exports. In his research to start a business, he came across Japanese studies, dating back more than 80 years, in relation to bubbles that measured less than a micrometer, with properties different from those of ordinary bubbles and which were known as “nanobubbles”. For this reason, the businessman decided to travel to Osaka to talk to scientist Takeshi Matsunaga, who specializes in the production of this technology, and they began to interact to bring it to Chile.
Manuel Vial (30), industrial civil engineer and head of Research and Development at Kran, explains that these nanobubbles were generated for the first time in the early 2000s, when certain hypotheses began to be validated regarding their electrical charge and the volume capacity they may have. Vial says that it was possible to verify that plants grew faster with the application of nanobubbles, which prompted new research and eventually the Fine Bubble Industries Association (FBIA) was created, which brings together universities and international companies to continue applying and developing the science.
Kran reports that their mission is to maintain and restore the normal conditions of ecosystems belonging to three main industries: aquaculture, agriculture and also in water treatment. “For example, if you bring in a brutal density of farmed fish, they start to deplete all the oxygen in the water and generate a lot of organic matter. Already the local fauna there is beginning to disappear. So, what we are looking for is to mitigate as much as possible this impact that the industrialization of fishing is having,” says the head of Research and Development at Kran.
One of the ways to accomplish this, Vial says, is to make the aeration system in the water more efficient. The engineer says that fish and aquatic organisms consume and need different types of gases to survive, and the main means of transporting these gases are bubbles. However, he says that normal bubbles tend to float and get lost on the surface, while nanobubbles stay longer in the middle. “They don’t go up, they move randomly and remain as a useful reserve. In other words, the fish, as they need gases, consume them. Also plants or bacteria. In the end, it’s much more efficient as a means of diffusing gases,” he sums up.
In other words, the use of nanobubbles would prevent the decrease of oxygen in the water and maintain natural levels in ecosystems that are used for cultivation. Another application that Vial highlights is the use of nanobubbles in disinfection. He explains that, due to their size, the bubbles are surrounded by a very high electrical layer. According to the engineer, these charges, when released, would kill bacteria and viruses.
“In terms of water treatment, we have managed to reduce the chemicals used by up to half, which is also positive for the environment. Any company that has production has water treatment and they use two types of chemicals basically, which are flocculants and coagulants. We managed to reduce both, while maintaining the operation. We are also working with nurseries on agricultural issues, where we disinfect the surfaces of the oranges,” he exemplifies.
The Creation of Nanobubbles
Manuel Vial says that they produce bubbles through the Venturi system, which, he explains, is a physical phenomenon. This system works through the entry of water through a tunnel, which at one point opens in diameter. “When it opens, a pressure difference is generated. In addition, it has a hole at the top where the gas we want is injected. This opening is where all the turbulence and the generation of nanobubbles is generated,” says Kran’s head of Research and Development.
Vial explains that they are constantly testing new technologies so that the system becomes more independent and does not consume as much from other sources. Currently, the operational costs of the production of nanobubbles are concentrated in the electrical consumption of the pumps that propel the fluids through the tubes and the gas that is to be incorporated. “But we’re also using other systems. Instead of using oxygen tubes, we are already applying oxygen concentrators. The atmospheric air is taken in, all the nitrogen is taken out, it is thrown out through a valve, and the rest is injected. In the end, it’s almost pure oxygen,” says the industrial civil engineer.
In developing this project, the researcher says that the main challenge lies in the fact that nanobubbles belong to a very new science, and each client becomes a research case, where new and different results are observed. “Pretty much everything we do is not ‘googleable.’ It is very difficult to find information. So we are in a science that is absolutely new in terms of research, and even newer in terms of development,” says Vial.
Kran also identifies the size of the bubbles as a second difficulty: nanoscales are invisible to the human eye, and therefore the only way to understand their effectiveness is through their application and the observation of results. “You have to measure a lot of variables, what the behaviors are, it’s an endless amount of research to think and rethink what may be happening. But at the same time it makes it super entertaining and dynamic,” adds the head of Research and Development of the organization.
Ecosystem Restoration
Vial says that Kran experienced exponential growth during 2020, where there was an injection of 2 million dollars through the venture capital Invexor. They are currently designing new offices, with a larger research and development lab, in order to generate mass production of the nanobubble machines. In addition, they also have national and international collaborations, and have the approval of the Association of Fine Bubble Industries.
“We have a collaboration agreement with the Universidad de los Andes. Next week we will begin an agreement with the Catholic University of Valparaiso, that we are going to send them a machine and there will be thesis students looking at the issue of nanobubbles. Also, the Federico Santa María Technical University of Valparaiso will begin next week an agreement on the issue of water treatment. The Universidad Católica del Norte bought us a machine. And we have done tests at the University of Concepción with a Swiss scientist,” says Vial.
At the international level, Kran reports that they recently made a presentation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, where a delegation from the Philippines was interested in the project and in the following weeks they will visit the Chilean offices in Puerto Montt to learn about the technology and see the possibility of applying it to the seabed of their country. In addition, Kran plans to send machines to Guatemala, in a joint effort with the NGO Ibagua, where they will seek to recover the natural properties of Lake Amatitlán, which is 12 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide. “It’s a very important lake next to the capital and now it’s hell in terms of pollution. There is no water treatment, neither domestic nor industrial. In two weeks we are going to send them a first machine,” says the industrial civil engineer.
Globally, Kran’s head of research and development says there is growing interest in preserving marine spaces. In Chile alone, it reports that 20% of aquaculture centers are closed due to their levels of deterioration and contamination. “The issue of regulations often doesn’t happen until some alternative is found. Because you can plead, but if no one gives any solution, nothing is going to change. So, if we arrive and say: ‘we’re going to do this’, then the regulations can start to demand,” says Manuel Vial.
SOURCE:
La Tercera