Ozone for water purification - any experience??

We have been trying to make a decision about water treatment for our one guest suite B&B (because of gov't overkill on regs in Ontario Canada following the Walkerton fiasco - don't get me started [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] ) and we came across a fairly new manufacturer of an ozone purifier. The concept seems to make sense and, as we are happy with our water and not necessarily looking for "softening", we were hoping this might fill the bill. The company website is right here - if you are on a slow rural connection like me it takes a while to load.

Would appreciate any comments from those more knowledgable than me.

Bob

You might want to Google on... "UV" + "water" + "purification" and check out this viable alternative to ozone. Ozone generators do work and will kill a lot of biologics, ditto UV. UV, If I recall my literature search of deades ago, may kill things that Ozone, in the concentrations you'd find in domestic water treatment, might not destroy. Check it out. Review other info sources than the seller of one brand of ozone water treatment equipment.

Amazon.com
UV Water Purifier - PurGuard A13 Ultraviolet Water Purification 13 gal./min.
List Price: $539.95
Our Price: $439.95

Just one of many...

I don't remember what all the criteria were "way back then" but we were moved by our research toward the UV solution.

As I recall my chemistry, ozone breaks down on contact with water and turns into O2 (molecule) plus an elemental O atom. The elemental O is more highly reactive and does the killing if it doesn't find another elemental O atom to combine with to form the more gently O2 molecule. Similar in anti-bacterial operation to hydrogen peroxide which decomposes to water and free oxygen.

Best of luck to you,

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Ozone should work similar to chlorine. Both are oxidizers. The advantage to ozone is that you can produce it and don't have to buy it. Its the "clear" smell you get from lightning, and other electric archs.

I'm only responding a year and a half late, but I'm sure you're still monitoring this thread, right?

My well has a very strong sulfer smell the water has a distinct greenish tinge. It tested as safe to drink, but it was not pleasant. A local guy here installed a water tank and an ozone injector and it makes the cleanest, sweetest water out of this muck.

My system is from triple-O systems (http://www.tripleo.com/) and consists of a large tank (I think it is about 1000 gallons but I'm not sure), an ozone generator, air pump, and a large pleated filter.

I'm crowing about this now because I had to recently do some maintenance on the system and it is working well again. I had forgotten how well it works when properly maintained. You do have to buy a new UV ozone generator every 18 months, and there appears to be some reaction between brass fittings and the ozone that builds up a white, powdery crystal. That can accumulate to such a degree that it blocks the tube that the ozone is pumped through, which is what happened to me. Also the pleated filter needs to be cleaned periodically depending upon how dirty your water is.

I've had great experiences with my system and I would have the same thing installed again.

-csw

Thanks for the info! I don't know if the original poster is still interested, but I've been looking into ozone for my place.

Just how big is a 1000 gallon tank? Is it indoors or out?

Stay focused on the fact that OZONE is oxygen and it is used to oxidize biologics, kill bugs and such.

It does not remove any chemicals (read contamination and polution) or turbidity, disolved solids or suspended solids. Ozone is a wonderful treatment that adds nothing to the final product since any excess ozone not consumed just breaks down to oxygen. It is a terrific PORTION of the solution but not the whole story.

You will still need to have the water tested to find out what all you may need to treat for that ozone can't help with. Ozone will help make your water biologically inert, i.e. will kill living things and help decompose, through oxidation, their "dead bodies" but wouldn't do anything for you regarding lead, arsenic, nitrates, or a host of other potential contaminates.

Again, it is a terific approach for part of the problem but is not a total solution.

As regards the size of a tank...

There are 231 cubic inches in one US gallon. Since a cubic foot is 12 by 12 by 12 inches, a cubic foot has 1728 cubic inches. Thus one cubic foot = 1728 cubic inches = (1728/231) gallons = 7.48 gallons.

So there are about 133.7 cubic feet of capacity in a thousand gallon tank. This would be a tank a little over 5 ft by 5 ft by 5 ft. (close to 5 ft 1 3/16 inches in all three dimensions) or any other configuration that would give the same internal capacity. You could make the tank one ft by one foot and 133.7 ft long.

The tank could be make a little smaller if it could handle extreme pressures (billions and billions of tons per square inch) or if you could come by a good synchro-etroverter (key to hyperspatial storage methods.)

There are tradeoffs to locating a tank inside versus outside. If it leaks outside the damage is usually less costly but it is less likely to have damage from freezing if sited inside. You pays your money and takes your chances (choices?)

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Generating ozone on a consistent volume basis requires very dry air. In VA with the high humidity, that will require an expensive air dryer with its on going maintenance. Ozone systems are always the most expensive choice for disinfection/oxidation, plus they have the highest cost of operation. If you're oxidizing anything, like iron, H2S etc., you'll need a turbidity/clarifying filter after it.

You may not want to oxidize before a storage tank unless you can clean it out periodically. After the tank before using the water may be a better choice.

I suggest looking into a non-electric no moving parts inline erosion pellet chlorinator and special mixing tank equal to a 120 gal retention tank followed by a Centaur carbon filter to clarify the water (of turbidity) and remove the chlorine. You'll spend much less money, take up less space and operation will cost the least of all equipment choices.

Ozone and chlorine do not 'deactivate' cysts or crypto but class A UV does. UV has a number of pretreatment requirements.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Gary, What about the point of use UV units with no storage? Never had one but always thought they were a good approach, not neccessarily for all sink water but for a drinking/cooking water dispenser.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, POE(ntry) or POU, I know of no UV that has any type of storage. UV is continuous operation and all UVs are flow controlled/rated in gpm and treat the water as used at full flow up to the light's gpm rating.

Most UV lights are not class A and I know of no POU UV that are class A; only POE. Actually there are few POU UVs and that would be a poor choice for a house or building when all the water would be otherwise contaminated.

All UV has quite stringent pretreatment requirements.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Gary, thank you VERY much for all of your contributions. Much food for thought...


It sure is a different picture than the one painted by the sellers of this stuff! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> As regards the size of a tank... There are 231 cubic inches in one US gallon. Since a cubic foot is 12 by 12 by 12 inches, a cubic foot has 1728 cubic inches. Thus one cubic foot = 1728 cubic inches = (1728/231) gallons = 7.48 gallons. </font color>

Oh. Duh. I guess I could have done the math... [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Thanks Pat. That means I have something in the neighborhood of a 1000 gallon cistern outside my house. It's concrete tank, buried so the top is just a few inches above the local ground level. About 4x8 is visible, and I haven't tested the depth. It appears that it was the original water source for the house, then later became an adjunct to a well, then got turned off. I assume the pump is still in the tank, because all of the indoor parts are still there. No, I do NOT use this water!

It's got water in it - I have rain gutters directed into it right now. Someone at some point chopped a crude hole in the roof of it and ran a pipe in from the gutter runoff. I've kept that in place so far.

I'm thinking of reviving it for irrigation use only. I plan to do a complete re-working of our water system, maybe later this year. The line coming in from my well currently enters the basement at the highest corner, so any leaks would have to run diagonally across the basement floor to the sump. Brilliant! The line from the cistern comes in from another corner, and feeds into a dual-tank filtering apparatus (of unknown type), then into the rest of the plumbing system. It is still connected, and it's obvious that the current well is the newcomer, as it is tapped into older pipe. One pressure tank.

Since it's all old equipment, and the cistern is still part of the system (though shut off), I want to get rid of it all and start fresh.

I plan to run the working well line around the perimeter of the basement and put the new equipment near the sump. Water heater and any filtering/treatment equipment will also go there. I'll use an irrigation pump for the cistern water if I go that route.

Any thoughts on this, gents?

Gary Slusser wrote:
"Ozone and chlorine do not 'deactivate' cysts or crypto but class A UV does. UV has a number of pretreatment requirements."

I would disagree that ozone doesn't affect cysts or crypto as mentioned here. Ozone is a powerful disinfectant.

I DO agree though that Class-A UV systems are superior to Class-B systems fro proper disnfection for a number of reasons.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

I've not seen anything saying that ozone deactivates cysts or crypo but it may although chlorine does not.

Class B UV does not but it does deactivate all bacteria found in supposedly potable water that are known to be dangerous to humans. Anyone can check that out a the EPA web site.