Patent ID: 7278630

Claim:
An apparatus having means for creating microbubbles in a liquid to permit a selected gas to better react with impurities entrained in said liquid, comprising; means for introducing gas bubbles, the majority of which are of a size greater than 100 microns, into a liquid to form a liquid-gas mixture; elongate, hollow pipe means, substantially symmetrical in cross-section of interior cross-sectional area Ai, positioned substantially vertically, adapted to receive said liquid-gas mixture and supply said liquid-gas mixture under a first pressure to aperture means, said pipe means having plug means situate at a lowermost distal end thereof for preventing egress of liquid-gas mixture vertically downward from said distal end; said aperture means situate on said pipe means and disposed substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of said pipe means and extending from an interior of said pipe means to an exterior of said pipe means, adapted to direct said liquid-gas mixture substantially horizontally outwardly from said pipe means; and said pipe means of uniform wall thickness and having a maximum interior width D i and a maximum exterior width D o , having identical moments of inertia about at least two separate axis in a cross-sectional plane through said pipe means; said aperture means comprising at least one or more apertures having a combined exit area A e ; and said combined aperture exit area A e defined as a function of widths D i and D o and said cross-sectional area A i of said pipe means, wherein A e is no greater than: A i ×D i /D o said liquid-gas mixture when directed through said aperture means having said above defined relationship between A e , A i , D i and D o thereby forming microbubbles in said liquid-gas mixture, the majority of which are of a size less than 100 microns.