Ozone Generation Systems: A Vital Component Required at Water Treatment Plants

We have been studying about the ozone gas since our primary classes but are barely aware of its potential benefits and widespread uses across different industrial verticals. Ozone has been widely used since the past few years in the food and beverage processing, chemical industries, and many other industries for purification purposes.

What is Ozone?

Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive gas consisting of 3 oxygen atoms. It is available naturally in the Earth's lower atmosphere (troposphere) and upper atmosphere (stratosphere) and can also be generated artificially. Being a highly unstable gas, it is generated on-site nearby the point of utilization.

The overall ozone generation process is endothermic which means it needs energy, such as heat. Only electric power and feed gas are necessary for ozone generators. Moreover, the procedure of ozone generation does not require any transportation or storage and can be carried out internally on production sites.

An Innovative Water Management Model using Ozone:

Generating and disinfecting pharmaceutical water requires a lot of complex procedures, making the task quite troublesome. However, there are solutions that can carry out this task effectively and inexpensively.

The availability of pure and pollutant-free water is among the extremely vital factors taken into consideration while setting up a new-fangled manufacturing plant. Without proper accessibility to properly clean water, manufacturing of any product might be almost impossible, changeover and sanitizing of reusable devices and machineries might cease, and the entire manufacturing process can come to a standstill.

Therefore, an all-inclusive water management model should take care of all the water used and discharged at the manufacturing plant. The water management model should be able to deal with the management, storage, treatment, and delivery of the industrial water. While designing an effective water management model it obligatory to pay attention to the requirements for both periodic and continuous sanitization to alleviate and avert the accumulation of pollutants, for instance, biofilm within the water system.

Amongst many options available for water cleansing, ozone is known as an effective option for sanitizing biopharmaceutical or any other industrial water systems. Ozone is an amazing oxidant, stronger than chlorine. It can be used to sanitize, decolorize, deodorize, and decompose organic matter in water. It can play a major part in the implementation of a successful water management model, thus catering all the needs of a manufacturing facility.

Benefits of Using Ozone in the Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastewater:

• It offers complete conversion of pollutants to CO2 and H2O, rising toxicity, and enhancing biodegradability.

• It helps in getting rid of odor and color.

• It helps in rapid decomposition, thus leaving no unsafe byproducts.

• It increases the efficiency of the filtration process.

• It is an environment-friendly gas.

• Can be retrofitted to prevailing as well as a new treatment plant.

• It lowers operating cost.

• Easy to work with and handle.

The 2 most common methods for ozone generation in the pharmaceutical industries include electrolytic generation and silent discharge generation. Electrolytically produced ozone is usually used for small quantities of ozone or lower flows. On the other hand, ozone produced using silent discharge method offers improved flexibility for managing ozone concentrations as per the amount required.

Ozone can also be used as an alternate option to heat decontamination with hot water and steam or chemical disinfection using chlorides, chlorine, peroxides, and others. It is one of the powerful commercially obtainable oxidants, with a sanitizing strength 3,000 times than that of chlorine owing to its greater eV potential. It can efficiently destroy yeast, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other microbes.

Even though there are many possible sources of pollutants in storage and distribution systems for sanitized and sterilized water, one of the most usual issues faced in purified water (PW) manufacturing and distribution is the avoidance and elimination of biofilms. Eradicating biofilms is as a result very essential for the conservation of high-purity water. Periodic as well as continuous decontamination treatments are methods to alleviate the growth and spread of biofilms. But targeted elimination of biofilms is tough as there aren’t many non-specific treatments available that can destroy the inherent compositional variability of biofilms.

Recently, the problems with these conventional methods, for instance, water contamination issues, strict environmental rules, and higher chemical prices, have made many industries to adopt the usage of ozonated water for the elimination of biofilms and demolition of microbial contamination.

Future of Ozone Generation Systems:

The growing need for clean drinking water has fueled the need for ozone generation systems in water treatment plants. As per a report published by Research Dive, the global ozone generation market is anticipated to surpass a revenue of $1,624.7 million by 2026. However, the sudden rise of the COVID-19 pandemic has made a negative impact on the growth of the market due to the closure of industrial activities amidst the lockdown period. When the lockdown restrictions are relaxed and industrial processes are resumed, the demand for ozone generation systems is likely to thrust with the growing need for clean water across the globe.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.