Before 1970, the Water Pollution Control Federation had determined that fine bubble bottom air diffusers were by far the most efficient and energy saving of all types of wastewater aeration systems. The problem was that fine bubble diffusers can clog easily. So, the majority of the wastewater treatment industry went to less efficient surface aerators. Surface wastewater aerators not only sit on the surface, they also only oxygenate the surface water of wastewater lagoons, leaving the rest of the lagoon water anoxic (without oxygen). Most importantly, in temperate and colder climates, surface aerators often freeze, rendering them useless. Our wastewater aerators have a unique design that allows us to achieve high-capacity water movement with aeration, even in the winter.
In designing our first wastewater aeration system, we tackled all of the toughest problems. Because of the energy crisis, the wastewater aerator had to be the finest bubble bottom diffuser available. However, it also had to be non-clogging and more efficient than wastewater surface aerators. Furthermore, it had to remove odor and bottom organic sediment (muck). To achieve these goals the CLEAN-FLO wastewater aeration system had to be specially engineered to be non-clogging and to have the characteristics listed below.