In the Axine process, waste water is treated via a single-step electrochemical oxidation process. Legzdins’ “high-efficiency oxidation machine” is a 2,000-square-centimetre electrolytic membrane that resembles a sheet of paper. It is inserted between an anode and a cathode. Waste water flows across the surface of the anode.
Electricity is applied to the anode. In the presence of the electric charge and the proprietary catalyst coating that Legzins invented, some of the water is broken down into an aggressive “hydroxyl radicals” — a molecule consisting of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom.
“This is pretty much the most reactive oxidation agent that you can make,” Chrysalix CEO Jonathan Rhone explained. “Oxidants are things like chlorine, or ozone or hydrogen peroxide — chemical agents that are used to react with things we don’t want.”
The hydroxyl combines with the chemicals in the waste water that are to be neutralized and converts them into their non-toxic basis ingediatents — water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
“What you want for these really challenging chemicals in waste water is something that is extremely rapid, something that will grab onto these molecules and break them down into their basic building blocks,” Rhone said. “Think of these (waste) chemicals as longchain molecules that are then exposed to OH radicals. The OH radicals just grab onto these molecules and basically break them down into hydrogen, water and CO2. It’s an extremely effective way of doing this without using any chemicals and without producing any other concentrate.”
The water that comes out the other end is not intended to be drinkable, but it is now clean enough to be reused in the industrial process, thus reducing the need for freshwater.