Overview
When a municipal water department lifts groundwater into the supply system, what enters the pipes is not water in the normal sense but a chemical cocktail: methane, radon, hydrogen sulfide, chloramine traces and other toxins that dissolved deep underground where pressure and geology do not ask permission. Once the water hits pumps and pipelines the gases escape wherever they please — into the main, into basements, into showers, into distribution hubs — while part stays in the water and gives it its signature odour and aftertaste. People smell sulfur, engineers chase radon in testing, and municipalities collect complaints, lawsuits and chronic public irritation.
Arbok-Evaporation does not fight the gases inside the liquid. Deep vacuum drops gas solubility to zero, the gases separate completely, and the condensate becomes clean water — no odour, no radon, no hydrogen sulfide, no methane, no chemical leftovers. This is not filtration and not chemistry but phase separation, where there is nowhere for an error to hide. Nothing is vented: each gas leaves by its own controlled route and becomes either a product or a safe compound. The output is 100% water with zero waste, against reverse osmosis where half the volume becomes toxic brine.
Applications
Municipal groundwater intakes in U.S. cities and elsewhere; a compact containerised module at each intake point. The unit accepts any source water quality — gas-rich, organic-polluted, petroleum-contaminated, chemically loaded, even stormwater — and outputs a stable drinking stream. Relevant to states that have lived for decades on the border between "seems okay" and "smells like sulfur again," and to utilities running carbon columns or aeration towers that fail cyclically. Where the source water is mineralised, the same unit extracts valuable salts as a market-grade product.
Operating Principle
Deep vacuum reduces the solubility of dissolved gases to zero, so they separate instantly and completely from the water. The water evaporates and condenses back as clean water. The process is phase separation, not filtration and not chemistry.
Each gas has its own route:
- Methane becomes a stable energy fraction that can be collected.
- Radon goes to a dedicated chamber, stabilises, and can be used in a range of industrial applications.
- Hydrogen sulfide is neutralised on the same logic previously applied to ammonia in biogas waste: ammonia water is good raw material for farmers, and where it is not wanted, ammonia is captured by the Ammonia-trap unit using acids and turned into high-value fertilizers. Each gas becomes either a product or a safe salt.
- Chloramine falls apart by itself in the evaporation chamber — vacuum and temperature do the chemistry.
After condensation the water contains only what should be there: light mineralisation, clean taste, no bacteria, no microplastics, no heavy salts.
Why the incumbent methods do not close the problem. Aerators — the classic answer — crudely pull the gases out of the water and dump them into the atmosphere; the source calls this a chimney in the jet age, and notes that if the primitive tools solved anything, no new technology would have been needed. Carbon columns and aeration towers fail cyclically, with odours returning after about three months. Reverse osmosis consumes 5–15 kWh/t, requires 150-bar pressure and consumables, discards half the volume as toxic brine, and still vents gases to the air; the source cites regions that throw out membranes three times a year.
Residual limitation acknowledged in the source: the remaining problem after treatment can be the old pipe network itself and the deposits on its walls, which is a separate ARBOK technology.
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|—|—|
| Process temperature | ambient — deep vacuum, no heat supplied |
| Energy consumption | 0.65–1 kWh per tonne of water, real grid energy |
| Comparison: reverse osmosis | 5–15 kWh/t |
| Water yield | 100%, zero waste |
| Liquid waste / brine | none |
| Atmospheric emission | none — no aerators, no "allowed emissions" |
| Membranes, filters, consumables | none |
| High-pressure operation | none (RO requires 150 bar) |
| Gases addressed | methane, radon, hydrogen sulfide, chloramine traces |
| Output water | light mineralisation, clean taste, no bacteria, no microplastics, no heavy salts |
| Unit footprint | 20-foot container; multiple units combined for higher capacity |
| Operation mode | autonomous, with real-time inline laboratory analytics |
| Quality guarantee | 100% — unit stops if analytics detect a deviation and no response follows |
Architecture and Components
Containerised module at the water intake point, built into a 20-foot container (larger, smaller, or several units working together for substantially higher throughput). Deep-vacuum evaporation chamber; condensation stage returning clean drinking water; separate controlled routes and capture stages per gas — energy fraction for methane, dedicated stabilisation chamber for radon, neutralisation for hydrogen sulfide, Ammonia-trap with acid capture for ammonia into fertilizers; salt extraction stage where the source water is mineralised. Inline real-time laboratory analytics module reporting to the water authority, with automatic shutdown on unaddressed deviation. No membranes, no filters, no aerators, no high-pressure pumps, no consumables.
Advantages
Removes the gases at the root rather than displacing them: no venting, so the environmental department has nothing to ask about because there is no emission. Zero waste — not a single millilitre of waste stream, against RO where half the volume becomes toxic brine requiring discharge to ground or water body. Indifferent to source water quality, which removes the need to match technology to each well. No consumables and no membranes means no cyclic failure and no return of odours after three months.
Energy: 0.65–1 kWh/t against 5–15 kWh/t for RO, with no high-pressure pumps and no complex motor assemblies needing winter maintenance.
Analytics: quality is measured inline in real time instead of carrying bottles to a laboratory, paying thousands and waiting days — during which, as the source notes, hundreds of people can be poisoned.
Revenue offset: the separated gases become marketable products whose revenue reduces the cost of the water treatment itself, and mineralised source water additionally yields saleable salts.
Integrations
Ammonia Trap · ARBOK-HS (Hydrogen Sulfide Capture) · ARBOK PURI · ARBOK-Underground-Water · ARBOK-PIPELINE (Water-Affordable Transfer Technology) · ARBOK-FERTILIZER
Installed at the water intake point as a module upstream of the distribution network. Pipe-network deposits downstream are covered by a separate ARBOK technology: [требует уточнения из базы]
Deployment & Operation
One containerised module per water intake point; no special site conditions required. Runs autonomously on autopilot. Inline analytics send data to the water authority; if a deviation is not acted on urgently, the unit stops, since water quality is guaranteed at 100%.
Commissioning sequence, staffing, throughput per unit and CAPEX: [требует уточнения из базы]
TRL
TRL 5 — проставлен Михаилом 2026-08-06.
Market Potential
Municipal water systems drawing on groundwater, with U.S. cities named as the reference market — utilities that have spent decades cycling between repairs, replacements and complaints over odour, radon and sulfur in the network. The source frames the alternatives as 19th-century equipment (aerators) and RO with its brine and membrane replacement cycles, and positions ARBOK-Gas as the way to close the chapter permanently while cutting cost.
Market size, addressable installed base and pricing: [требует уточнения из базы]
Typical Project Economics
| Item | Value |
|—|—|
| Energy | 0.65–1 kWh per tonne of water |
| Comparison: RO energy | 5–15 kWh/t |
| Consumables, membranes, filters | none — no replacement cost |
| Brine disposal | none |
| Revenue offset | sale of separated gas fractions as marketable products; extracted salts where source water is mineralised |
Risk Factors
The source identifies the main obstacle as institutional habit rather than technical performance: utilities accustomed to repairing the same issue every few months treat membrane-free technology as exotic, and defenders of aerators and RO are described as fighting for a better seat rather than solving the problem. Adoption is voluntary and slow for that reason.
Technical limits acknowledged in the source: after treatment, the remaining quality risk lies in the old pipe network itself and the deposits on its walls, which is outside this unit's scope. Radon is stabilised in a dedicated chamber rather than destroyed, so its onward handling and application route is a separate matter.
Regulatory approvals for drinking water, throughput limits, maintenance intervals and failure modes: [требует уточнения из базы]
Related Technologies
Ammonia Trap · ARBOK-HS (Hydrogen Sulfide Capture) · ARBOK PURI · ARBOK-Underground-Water · ARBOK Low-Carbon Water · ARBOK-PIPELINE (Water-Affordable Transfer Technology)