When: Wednesday, June 17th @ 10:00am
Speakers: Rick LaRose, LEED AP, ASSE 12080
Bio:
Over the past several years, Rick has focused on evaluating emerging non-chemical water conditioning technologies through structured field trials, engineering analysis, and collaboration with third-party laboratories and academic institutions. His work emphasizes practical system integration, risk-based decision-making, and clear differentiation between established best practices and emerging technologies. Rick regularly works with healthcare engineers and facility teams to translate water system theory into reliable, code-conscious, and operationally realistic solutions.
Description:
Healthcare water systems can face persistent challenges related to mineral limescale formation, biofilm development, and conditions that may support opportunistic waterborne pathogens. While established water management programs rely on temperature control, chemical treatment, filtration, and routine maintenance, these approaches can introduce operational complexity, safety concerns, and long-term cost impacts. As a result, healthcare engineers continue to explore supplemental, non-chemical technologies that may support existing best practices.
Nanobubble technology represents an emerging physical water conditioning approach gaining interest within healthcare environments. Nanobubbles are gas-filled structures typically less than 200 nanometers in diameter and exhibit unique physical characteristics, including extended residence time in water and surface charge behavior that influence mineral precipitation and surface interactions.
This presentation examines the relationship between limescale and biofilm, emphasizing how mineral scale often provides attachment surfaces and favorable conditions for microbial growth. The session explores how reducing or inhibiting limescale accumulation can help lower conditions that support waterborne pathogens, while clearly distinguishing between risk reduction and pathogen elimination.
The presentation then provides a technical overview of nanobubble generation principles and how nanobubbles differ from conventional aeration and microbubble systems. Attendees will learn how and where nanobubble generators may be applied within healthcare water systems, including domestic hot water recirculation loops, cold water systems, and cooling tower applications. Practical design considerations will be reviewed.
Finally, nanobubble technology is compared to other commonly used methodologies for limescale and biofilm control, highlighting similarities, differences, and appropriate limitations. Rather than positioning nanobubbles as a replacement for established practices, this session frames the technology as a developing, supplemental tool that healthcare engineers and directors may responsibly evaluate as part of a comprehensive water management strategy
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how limescale and biofilm commonly co-occur in building water systems, their relationship to one another, and how removal and inhibition of limescale may help reduce conditions that support waterborne pathogens.
2. Describe the fundamental physical characteristics of nanobubbles and how they differ from conventional aeration or microbubble systems.
3. Understand how and where nanobubble technology and nanobubble generators may be applied within healthcare water systems, including practical considerations for system integration and operation.
4. Understand other methodologies used in the removal and inhibition of limescale and biofilm, and how nanobubble technology is similar to and different from those approaches.
