Here we explore AquaB Nanobubble Innovations Ltd, the University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out company incorporated in 2020 to commercialise platform nanobubble-generation technology lead-invented by Professor Niall English
The company was awarded the 2020 IChemE Global Award in the Water category. This recognition reflects strong international interest in AquaB’s unique approach to nanobubble-generation, and the advances made in nanobubble aeration for activate-sludge water treatment and dissolved-air flotation.
In 2022 AquaB was awarded a European Innovation Council Accelerator grant to support the ongoing commercialisation of its nanobubble-generation technology.
Professor Niall English
Niall English is an inventor, professor in Chemical Engineering, chartered chemical engineer (FIChemE) and industrialist. Following completing a PhD in gas-water flow systems in electromagnetic fields in 2003 at University College Dublin (UCD), he carried out further research of such fields on water and metal oxides at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Prof. English then worked for the Chemical Computing Group in Cambridge, GB – developing molecular-simulation codes and protocols in structure-based drug-design for the pharmaceutical industry. He commenced his academic career at UCD in 2007; he was promoted to professor in 2017.
Prof. English is the co-founder of two prestigious European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator-backed UCD-originated spin-outs, AquaB and BioSimulytics. In 2020, AquaB won the IChemE Global Award in the Water Award category based on the breakthrough platform nanobubble technology. Biosimulytics was the overall winner of the 2019 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme and received the UCD Spin-out of the Year Award in 2022 for its work to advance molecular simulation of crystal-structure prediction.
Electric-field/electrostriction-based platform nanobubble-generation technology
Prof. English lead-invented the patented electric-field/electrostriction-based platform nanobubble-generation technology used by AquaB; various industrial-scale generators have been developed by AquaB on their TRL 5 to 8 journey from 2020 to the present.
This followed development overseen under the scientific and engineering supervision of Prof. English in his research group at UCD, with thanks to Enterprise Ireland, Bord Gáis and Science Foundation Ireland. AquaB is currently making great progress on its EIC “AQUA-BUBBLES” project on improving aeration-based water treatment using its breakthrough nanobubble-generation technology for scalable mass manufacture – as well as pioneering new nanobubble-enabled advances in fields as diverse as, inter alia, oil-and-gas, calorific fuels and algae regulation.
Prof. English is starting his ERC Advanced grant on nanobubbles, “NIMBLE” starting in 2024, on nanobubble-lifetime and population engineering in agri- and aqua-culture, as well as wastewater treatment and carbon capture.
