Bridging the GAPs: Approaches to Treating Water On Farms

to be replaced; however, users will typically get 10,000 hours of run time. Finally, cost for initial set up can be a major concern among the industry.

Antimicrobial Devices – Ozone

Overview and chemistry

Ozone is a highly effective disinfectant and commonly used to treat municipal water and bottled water. It also has a long history of use in the food industry and is known to be effective against a broad spectrum of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Like chlorine and chlorine dioxide, ozone kills or inactivates microorganisms through oxidation. Ozone is a triatomic oxygen molecule (O3) that is formed by a high energy input that splits the oxygen molecule (O2) to two single oxygen molecules. The single oxygen molecule rapidly combines with available oxygen (O2) to form ozone (O3), a very unstable form of oxygen.

O 2 → 2O –

– → O

O 2 + O

3 (ozone)

Ozone is a bluish gas with a pungent odor. While created naturally in the atmosphere through the sun’s UV rays on oxygen, the gas is created on-site for industrial purposes through the use of a generator, which produces an electrical discharge between two electrodes in ambient air, oxygen gas, or oxygen-enriched air. For water treatment, it is then immediately injected into water to produce ozonated water. It decomposes spontaneously to oxygen, thereby reducing the accumulation of organic waste in the environment.

Dosage and impacts on concentration

Ozone is known to be safe and effective at concentrations ranging from 3 to 8 ppm. As for all disinfectants, optimum ozone concentration and contact time are particularly important. Several factors impact ozone concentration and effectiveness. As ozone is produced and injected into water, temperature plays an important role in its stability and solubility. As a processed gas, ozone decomposes as temperatures increase over 30oC (Table 1). For this reason, ozone generators are equipped with cooling systems.

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