Using Oxygen Generators For Water Treatment Systems

USING OXYGEN GENERATORS FOR WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Clean, pure water is a fundamental human necessity. Whether it be for cooking or hygiene, every person needs safe water. Clean water is becoming harder to obtain as our worldwide consumption of water continues to grow. By injecting oxygen into your water system it can increase the effectiveness of removing contaminants and impurities from your water supply.

How do Oxygen Generators Work?

Oxygen generators allow you to produce your own oxygen when and where you need it (versus relying on a liquid oxygen supply or depending on filled cylinders). By using Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) to generate oxygen, nitrogen is separated from the oxygen that is in the regular air.

At On Site Gas Systems, our oxygen generators have a vessel that absorbs the nitrogen molecules, and while the oxygen molecules drift past that vessel, they collect into an oxygen receiver tank. The oxygen receiver tank is attached to the oxygen generator, then releasing the pressure from the vessel and venting the nitrogen molecules back into the atmosphere. This cycle repeats in a second vessel, providing a consistent flow of gas from our oxygen generators.

Water Treatment

Because of the excellent disinfection and oxidation qualities of ozone, it is widely used in many water treatment applications. Each of these applications has various uses and methods for implementing and applying ozone.

Ozone has a wide variety of uses and applications in water treatment. Ozone can be used as a disinfectant, decolorizer, deodorizer, detoxifier, precipitant, coagulant, and for removing tastes. Consequently, the use of ozone should be considered when there is a need to address any of these water issues, particularly when there is suspicion of water-born pathogens as ozone is such an effective biocide.

Oxidation with ozone is efficient and can lower chemical costs and overall energy consumption. Ozone is the most powerful and effective broad-spectrum microbiological control or disinfecting agent available. As an example, for the inactivation of Giardia cysts, the Ct (concentration & time) is about 100 times greater for free chlorine than for ozone. With viruses, the Ct is about six times greater for chlorine than for ozone. For Cryptosporidia, ozone is the number one, recommended disinfectant by the US EPA due to its inactivation efficiency.

Ozone is safer to use than alternative chemicals, there is less need to add high concentrations of a long-lived poison to the water that may soon become drinking water. When ozone is implemented in drinking water treatment, the chlorine demand is greatly reduced, as it is then needed only as a way to provide a residual in the distribution system at low levels. This minimizes the potential for producing carcinogenic THMs, and other chlorine by-products.

Ozone may also lower overall chemical consumption due to its ability to disinfect without adding other chemicals which may later need to be removed

When can Ozone be Used in Water Treatment?

Ozone can be used to oxidize virtually anything that is oxidizable. Ozone can combine or react with all elements except Inert Gasses. Any molecule that is not in its final state of oxidation is subject to oxidation by ozone. Even some completely oxidized molecules may react with the radicals and other initiated reactions caused when ozone decomposes in an aqueous solution.

Ozone can normally be utilized in water treatment wherever Chlorine (Cl2), Chlorine dioxide (ClO2), Potassium permanganate (KMnO4), Ultraviolet light (UV), Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), Oxygen (O2), or aeration are used or considered for use. Also, ozone is very compatible with and can be used in conjunction with other treatments, as in the Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), for special cases or problems.

Ozone is noted for its ability to reduce the molecular weight of molecules, whether from the cell wall of a bacteria or from a carbon source that causes water coloration or poor taste.

Summary: If you can wash something, dissolve it in water, burn it, dissolve it with an acid, deteriorate it in the sunlight, eat it, or it reproduces, you can probably reduce it, remove it or kill it with ozone

What Can Ozone Treat In Water?

If it can be oxidized at normal temperatures and pressures, ozone can treat it.

Water treated with ozone may need to be filtered or settled, as ozone tends to coagulate and precipitate many impurities in the water.

Essentially, problems in water quality that are usually addressed with acid, peroxide, chlorine, or other oxidants are probably prime candidates for ozone treatment.

The following contaminants or problems can all be potentially treated with ozone:

     -Bacteria - all known, including iron bacteria

     -Minerals - inorganics, dyes, and others

     -Metals - Iron, Manganese, and many other

     -Organics - color, algae, other carbon compounds

     -Protozoans - all known, including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and all Amoebae

     -Viruses - all known

     -BOD & COD - reacts quickly, as ozone is a active form of oxygen

The use of ozone in combination with UV, or hydrogen peroxide creates an Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) to create the Hydroxyl Radical (OH-). This is an even more powerful method of oxidation than ozone alone. There are no contaminates that can be oxidized that will not be oxidized by this process.