fine bubble technology in the eu - brec solutions · fine bubble technology in the eu ......

R020001 v04 (2016)

Fine Bubble Technology in the EU

This study documents the commercial, academic and innovation activity in the area of fine bubbles

technology for the geographic area limited by countries in the European union (EU29). Special

attention is paid to evaluate the types of technology applications, the related bubble sizes and the

required needs for metrology in different countries in the EU29 area. Trends were identified and

predictions were made for the country-by-country development of fine bubble technology up to

2030.

R020001 v04 (2016) BREC Solutions Limited, 43 Bank Road, Lancaster, LA1 2DG, UK. Tel: +44 7887 931 658 [email protected] , www.brec-solutions.com 2

Table of Contents Forward ................................................................................................................................................... 5

Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 6

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 7

Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 8

2. Useful definitions ............................................................................................................................ 8

3. Technology ...................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Key Applications ............................................................................................................................ 11

Domestic and Industrial Wastewater purification ............................................................................ 11

Water sterilization ........................................................................................................................ 12

Agriculture and Aquaculture ............................................................................................................ 13

Industrial Processes .......................................................................................................................... 14

Ultrasound Nanoparticle coating technology ............................................................................... 14

Large Surfaces cleaning ..................................................................................................................... 15

Bio-Medical Applications .................................................................................................................. 16

Characterization ................................................................................................................................ 16

Transport ........................................................................................................................................... 19

Personal care ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Food and Drink .................................................................................................................................. 22

Foods based on Emulsions and Foams ......................................................................................... 22

Academic Research ........................................................................................................................... 23

Patent Landscape .............................................................................................................................. 24

5. Standardisation ............................................................................................................................. 29

Standardisation in Europe................................................................................................................. 30

6. Regulation ..................................................................................................................................... 30

7. Key stakeholders ........................................................................................................................... 31

Leeds Microbubble Consortium (UK) ................................................................................................ 31

Fine Bubble Industries Association (Japan) ...................................................................................... 31

8. Markets by Countries .................................................................................................................... 31

Austria (AT) ....................................................................................................................................... 37

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 38

Belgium (BE) ...................................................................................................................................... 39

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 40

Croatia (HR) ....................................................................................................................................... 41

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Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 42

Cyprus (CY) ........................................................................................................................................ 42

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 44

Czech Republic (CZ) ........................................................................................................................... 44

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 45

Denmark (DK) .................................................................................................................................... 46

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 47

Finland (FI) ........................................................................................................................................ 49

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 49

France (FR) ........................................................................................................................................ 50

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 51

Germany (DE) .................................................................................................................................... 58

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 60

Greece (GR) ....................................................................................................................................... 65

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 66

Hungary (HU) .................................................................................................................................... 67

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 67

Ireland (IE) ......................................................................................................................................... 68

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 69

Italy (IT) ............................................................................................................................................. 69

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 71

Netherlands (NL) ............................................................................................................................... 72

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 73

Norway (NO) ..................................................................................................................................... 74

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 75

Portugal (PT) ..................................................................................................................................... 76

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 76

Romania (RO) .................................................................................................................................... 77

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 77

Slovenia (SI) ....................................................................................................................................... 78

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 78

Spain (ES) .......................................................................................................................................... 78

Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 80

Sweden (SE)....................................................................................................................................... 82




Organizations ................................................................................................................................ 83

United Kingdom (UK) ........................................................................................................................ 84

Companies..................................................................................................................................... 86

Academia ...................................................................................................................................... 91

9. Outlook ......................................................................................................................................... 94

Academic activity and research ........................................................................................................ 94

Characterisation activity and metrology ........................................................................................... 94

Industrial sector activity .................................................................................................................... 95

10. Index ........................................................................................................................................ 105

11. References .............................................................................................................................. 106

Contact ................................................................................................................................................ 106




Forward All the work was done by BREC Solutions Limited (Dr Denis Koltsov). All rights reserved.

This report was initiated and supported by the Fine Bubble Industries Association (FBIA).

FBIA has full rights to use any part of this report or information within for its own purposes.

This report of 107 pages contains 82 Figures, covers 29 Countries and estimates market over 2014-

2030 period. Some 134 Organisations are listed to have their activity in the fine bubble technology.

For more information on pricing and availability of the report please contact Dr Denis Koltsov on

[email protected]




Summary This report evaluated 29 European member states and identified over 134 organisations working in

the field of fine bubbles. The size of the EU market was evaluated from commercial data available

for the 2014 year. The size was found to be €48.5 million in 2014 and was projected to increase to

€71.7 million by 2020 and to €144.8 million by 2030. The EU market for fine bubble technology was

found to be dominated by the water treatment sector with over 52% of the total (Figure 23). Bio-

medical, research and characterization areas of activity are the most promising areas after the water

treatment. It should be noted that UK specializes in characterization, Germany on water treatment

and France is relatively well balanced. The FBT activity is projected to grow nearly 3 times in the

period of 2014 to 2030. The greatest growth will be in water treatment area due to geo-political and

resource management reasons. The EU member states ranking plotted in Figure 28 highlights the

growth in each member state and the fact that Germany, France and the UK would maintain their

lead.

From the results of the academic literature search the academic publications are said to increase by

120% from 2014 to 2025. This report makes a point that academic publications are not always aa

good measure of commercial innovation. For this reason patent data was used. EU patent filings

tend to increase from year to year with an approximately 50% growth projected from 2015 to 2025.

The EU-owned patents follow a completely different data trend. The data indicated a decline from

2007 that should reach the lowest point in 2021.

In 2014-2015 the three biggest contributors to characterization and metrology in the EU were UK,

Germany and France with the UK overtaking Germany by nearly 3 fold. The provision of national

metrology centres and the supply of state of the art characterization equipment was found to be

strong in Germany and France but was exceptional in the UK. The UK was seen as a leader in

characterization equipment and metrology and contributed over 50% of the EU’s output in that field.

This area is likely to double by 2030.

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2014 2020 2030

Research

Agriculture

Food and Drink

Personal Care

Transport

Characterisation

Cleaning

Bio-Medical applications

FBT water purification




1. Introduction Recent trends in innovation, research and search for new applications around the world set a

number of priorities in terms of new products and services. More eco-friendly products are being

required by the market as the general public is trying to reduce the use of energy or harmful

chemicals. For example cleaning services are now aiming to be more nature-friendly by using less

detergents (that end up being released to the environment). Higher agricultural production has been

the focus of international food-producing industries for many years. The reliance on fresh water

resources or the remediation of spoilt water resources due to pollution is the priority in a number of

developed and developing countries.

Due to a better health service we live longer and this changes demographics and life expectancy

especially in the developed world. This in term requires more and more personalized medical care

with a great reliance on non-invasive diagnostic techniques such as ultrasound scans or tomography.

Personal care for skin, hair and teeth are in the top priority list for the large pharmaceuticals and

care providing companies.

The ecological transportation and the use of resources such as coal or metal ore extraction or fresh

water treatment are on the list of top priorities for the World Economic Forum (2015) discussions.

Availability of fresh water especially for the third world countries has been the priority number one

for decades.

All these discussion are affected by the technology that some call gas bubble technology but the new

term is “fine bubble technology”. This area of development brings together a number of

technologies from agriculture, aquaculture, cleaning, transport, bio-medical, pharmaceutical, food,

drink, water purification, mineral extraction by flotation and more. Fine bubbles technology is a

horizontal technology similar to biotechnology that affects a great number of independent sectors

by its implementation.

The origin of this technology can be tracked to the developments in physics of cavitation and fluid

dynamics. The processes of bubble generation and use are not simply dynamic. Due to recently

documented stability of fine bubbles, their numbers and size distributions may be characterized

using modern equipment. The effects as well as the presence of these bubbles are now the focus of

a growing community looking at improving existing industrial processes, consumer services or

products. This report aims to evaluate the level and breadth of this activity in the European Union

(EU29). The EU29 was taken as a list of 29 countries1 including Norway.

Methodology Copyrighted content.

1 EU29 was considered as an expanded list of countries: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (HR),

Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), Norway (NO), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), United Kingdom (UK)




2. Useful definitions The field of fine bubbles has a very lose terminology. Different application fields use contradictory

definitions ranging from “nanobubbles” while referring to bubbles of the size of a few microns to

“ultra-fine bubble aeration” where (in some cases) the bubble sizes are much greater than those

defined by ISO under that term.

ISO has developed a number of definitions that will be used in this report.

fine bubble - bubble (2.1) with a volume equivalent diameter of less than 100 μm

Note 1 to entry: 100 μm is also represented as 1 x 10-4 m.

ultrafine bubble - fine bubble (2.2) with a volume equivalent diameter of less than 1 μm

Note 1 to entry: Examples of ultrafine bubbles, measured in water by particle

characterisation methods, range between 100 nm and 200 nm.

Note 2 to entry: Nanobubbles are a part of the range of ultrafine bubbles.

microbubble - fine bubble (2.2) with a volume equivalent diameter in the range from 1 to 100 μm

Note 1 to entry: Figure 1 shows the ranges in size of bubbles, fine bubbles, ultrafine bubbles,

and microbubbles.

The term “nanobubble” was considered not appropriate for the technical definitions developed at

ISO TC281 committee. In the making of this report the term “microbubble” or “nanobubble” were

used and evaluated independently so that to avoid excluding statistics that may be due to an

inaccurate use of terminology by the existing users. All papers of patents containing these terms

were included in the study.

3. Technology

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10. Index

A

Academic Research, 23

Agriculture, 13

antibacterial properties, 30

antibiotics, 30




antimicrobial resistance, 30

Antimicrobials, 30

Aquaculture, 13

B

bactericidal process, 10

Biocidal Product Regulation, 30

Bio-Medical, 16

Bubble generation, 27

Butter, 22

C

ceramic diffusers, 12

Characterization, 16

D

drug delivery, 10

Dynamic Light Scattering, 17

E

e-coli, 12

ecological travel, 19

Electrical sensing zone method, 17

Emulsions, 22

EU country ranking, 36

EU Joint Research Centre (JRC), 23

EU29, 7

EU-owned patent, 26

European Commission, 33

European Medicines Agency, 30

European Union, 7

F

FBIA, 31

fine bubble, 8

Fine bubble activity, 8

Fine Bubble Industries Association, 31

fine bubble technology, 7

fine bubbles dispersion, 9

Foams, 22

Food and Drink, 22

G

GDP, 33

getters, 10

H

horizontal technology, 7

hydraulic fracturing, 28

I

image enhancing agents, 10

L

Laser Diffraction, 17

Leeds Microbubble Consortium, 31

M

magnetic microbubbles, 28

Mayonnaise, 22

Methodology, 8

microbubble, 8

microfluidic systems, 10

monetary turnover method, 8

N

nanobubble, 8

Nanoparticle implantation processes, 15

O

OECD, 24

Optical Particle Counter, 17

Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development, 24

Oxygen Transfer Efficiency, 11

ozone ultrafine bubbles, 21

P

particle characterization, 16

Particle Tracking Analysis, 17

Patent, 24

Periodontitis, 21

Personal care, 21

R

reducing alcohol content in wine, 28

Regulation, 30

Resonance Mass Measurement, 17

S

sonochemical synthesis, 15

Stability of emulsions, 23

Standardisation, 29

Static Image Analysis, 17

Static Multiple Light Scattering, 17

Surfaces cleaning, 15




T

tooth cleaning, 28

Transport, 19

U

Ultrasound, 17

Ultrasound Contrast, 27

Ultrasound Nanoparticle coating technology, 14

W

Water sterilization, 12

11. References 1. An ultrasonic technology for production of antibacterial nanomaterials and their coating on

textiles. Anna V. Abramova, Vladimir O. Abramov1, Aharon Gedanken, Ilana Perelshtein2 and

Vadim M. Bayazitov1. 2014, Beilstein J. Nanotechnol, Vol. 5, pp. 532–536.

2. Ultrasound-assisted coating of nylon 6,6 with silver nanoparticles and its antibacterial activity. N.

Perkas, G. Amirian, S. Dubinsky, S. Gazit andA. Gedanken. 3, 2007, Journal of Applied Polymer

Science, Vol. 104, pp. 1423–1430.

3. Ultrasound-assisted coating of polyester fiber with silver bromide nanoparticles. Raziyeh

Moosavia, Amir Reza Abbasib, Mohammad Yousefia, Ali Ramazanic, Ali Morsalib. 6, 2012,

Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, Vol. 19, pp. 1221–1226.

4. Bang, Jin Ho. Nanostructured Materials Prepared with Ultrasound PhD thesis. Illinois, USA :

University of Illinois, 2008.

5. EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Action plan against the rising threats from Antimicrobial Resistance.

[Online] 15 11 2011. [Cited: 13 11 2015.] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_food-

safety/docs/communication_amr_2011_748_en.pdf.

Contact Denis K. Koltsov (MA, MSci, MPhil, PhD) Director and Principal Consultant BREC Solutions Limited, 43 Bank Road, Lancaster, La1 2DG, UK tel: +44 7887 931 658 email: [email protected]

www.brec-solutions.com



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