Radical Waters receives patent for water well rehabilitation technology in India

South Africa-based Radical Waters has received a patent for its Electro Chemical Activation (ECA) Technology for rehabilitation of water wells or boreholes in India.

Under the ECA process, anolyte (disinfectant) and catholyte (mild detergent) are dosed into the wells to attack bio-materials that accumulate on the well’s solid surfaces.

Catholyte loosens and suspends the biofilm to reduce or precipitate some of the salts, such as iron, in the well water. Anolyte is used later on to kill and remove the biofilm and other suspended organisms.

The wells are drilled holes in the ground that reach down to aquifers. Though usually clean, they face biofilm accumulations and water volume loss over time.

Industrial wells are usually rehabilitated and treated, since drilling new wells is costly.

Rehabilitation can be completed by several methods. The most popular one involves use of high pressure along with blended chemicals and high temperatures (BCHT) to flush out the biofilms from the wells.

Radical Waters technical and R&D vice-president Philip Nel said: "BCHT poses severe restrictions, as the chemicals used are simply not safe.

"Chemicals could seep into adjoining wells during treatment and there is no way to guarantee this does not happen."

The use of ECA will completely replace the use of chemicals and high temperatures for biofilm removal, the firm said.

The disinfectant and the detergent used by Radical Water’s ECA technology will be directly injected into the well as free-flowing liquid or as high or low-pressure sprays to clean up the living cell components, gravel pack and in-the-rock formation inside the water well.

It will be completed in three phases. The first will shock and kill the bacterial cells in the biofilms using anolyte, the second will disrupt or break up the accumulations and hardened slime, and the third phase will disperse it along with other plugging materials.