Ozone is a very strong oxidant that disinfects and destroys organic material in water, oxidizes inorganic contaminants, and eliminates odours such as from hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds in air.
Ozone is costly to produce, so outstanding gas/liquid transfer is key to affordable treatment with ozone. With Muddy River’s simple and efficient MikroForme and BlendAir systems, cost effective ozonation is no longer an oxymoron.
Oxy Genius: MikroForme produced micro-bubbles efficiently transfer ozone into water or wastewater. Alternatively for smaller systems, ozone can be added to a tank headspace and drawn into a vortex produced by BlendAir. Since ozone reacts instantaneously, these high efficiency gas transfer technologies enable ozonation systems to be small. MikroForme and BlendAir are more efficient ozone gas contactors than bubble diffusers, venturis, or packed towers.
“Oh Zone”: Ozone is made by passing oxygen gas through a high voltage alternating current dielectric discharge gap. Ozone is generated from dry air or pure oxygen on-site because it is unstable and decomposes to elemental oxygen soon after generation. Ozone is about 13 times more soluble than oxygen in water, and has a half-life of just 20 minutes in water at 20°C. Up to 3.0% ozone by weight can be produced from air, or 6% to 12% ozone from pure oxygen.
Ozone Advantages
- Ozone can oxidize a wide range of organic contaminants in wastewater to form carbon dioxide.
- Ozone can oxidize inorganic contaminants in wastewater such as iron to reduce solubility.
- Ozone is better than chlorine or UV light at destroying viruses and bacteria.
- Ozone decomposes rapidly to form oxygen, so there are no harmful residuals for discharge or disposal.
- Ozonation results in elevated dissolved oxygen concentrations in treated effluent.
- Ozone is generated onsite, avoiding problems of chemical shipping and handling.
Ozone Disadvantages
- Ozone generation uses a significant amount of electrical power (8 to 13 watts/g O3).
- Ozone irritates lungs and eyes, so worker exposure to high concentrations must be prevented.