Patent ID: 7897053

Claim:
An apparatus for treating a fluid using a wave energy comprising: a gas-sparged pipe including a cylindrical housing, a cylindrical porous tube coaxially disposed within the housing, said porous tube having an inner surface, the housing including a gas inlet for delivering a pressurized gas to an annular space between the cylindrical housing and the porous tube, a tangential inlet for directing a fluid to the inner surface of the porous tube at one end of the porous tube, a tangential outlet for removing a fluid from the inner surface at the other end of the porous tube, wherein said tangential inlet and said tangential outlet are configured to create a rotating flow of the fluid in a thin film along the inner surface of the porous tube from a first end to a second end of the porous tube; a first electrode and a second electrode that are at least partially disposed within the porous tube, spaced apart from one another, and axially aligned with one another along a central axis of the porous tube from the first end to the second end; and wherein the electrodes are used to create an open electrical arc to provide the wave energy directly exposing the fluid as the fluid flows along the inner surface of the porous tube in close proximity to and surrounding the electrical arc such that only a gas separates the fluid from the open electrical arc, and the wave energy comprises ultraviolet light.