Abstract

Industrial waters containing dissolved or suspended contaminants are treated by turbulently mixing the contaminated water with a composition comprising a discontinuous phase of gas in the form of spherical bubbles having a narrowly distributed size of at least about 12 microns and each encapsulated in a double surfaced hydration layer containing water and a soluble surfactant having a HLB ratio greater than about 10, the encapsulated gas bubbles being dispersed in a continuous water phase and each having on the outer surface of the hydration layer a layer of collector ions active to react with the contaminants. The surfactant is present in an amount to stabilize the bubbles and to impart to the hydration layer sufficient thickness and viscosity to retard migration of the collector ions through the hydration layer for a period of time sufficient to enable the collector ions to react with the contaminants and cause nucleation thereof directly at the surface layers of the bubbles. The reaction between the collector ions and the contaminants causes the bubbles to rupture and to release their entrapped gas as naked gas bubbles and forms an insoluble reaction product, the ruptured bubbles exposing the surfactant contained in the respective hydration layer thereof for reaction with any unreacted collector ions to form a further insoluble reaction product. Both these reaction products are then allowed to separate from the water as a recoverable agglomerated material.