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Ozone is removed from water in three ways: UV radiation, chemicals, and activated carbon.
Ozone (O3) is a naturally occurring gas found in the earth’s atmosphere composed of three oxygen atoms joined together. Also, ozone is much more reactive than atmospheric oxygen (O2) as it contains an extra oxygen molecule. Ozone can also combine with other substances, creating chemical reactions and forming new compounds.
Before we explore how to remove ozone from water, it is important to understand where it comes from and why we use it in water treatment industries.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is thought ozone on land comes from pollution such as vehicle exhausts, power plants, and other industrial facilities that emit pollutants like volatile organic compounds.
But we can’t blame these industries, as ozone also comes from our household and office appliances like laundry machines and printers/scanners, basically, anything you own that uses UV light or electrical discharge can contribute to elevated ozone levels.
We use ozone in water treatment industries to ensure drinking water is safe for human consumption. Ozone water treatment processes can be implemented both commercially and in your workplace or home.
Ozone water treatment industries use ozone’s oxidative strength to reduce the number of contaminants in water. As ozone is an oxidant, it can easily react with other substances, picking up electrons in the process.
In ozone water treatments, ozone is injected into the water from an ozone generator. The ozone instantly starts oxidizing and removing contaminants in the water.
Removing these elements is critical to improving water quality.
As mentioned, ozone is used to remove many contaminants in water to improve the water quality, however, the residual ozone concentration must be monitored to keep the water below a certain limit.
Despite ozone’s short lifespan in water, if residual ozone levels exceed the recommended limit (for example, 0.1 to 0.4 ppm in bottled drinking water), corrosion or contamination may occur, therefore, certain measures are taken to reduce or eliminate the residual of ozone.
If methods are not used to remove ozone from water, it increases health and safety concerns.
The three main ways to remove ozone from water are:
Ultraviolet (UV) light is an extremely effective way to decompose and destroy ozone in water, which involves a very simple flow-through process.
In high purity water treatment processes, chemical and heat removal is not as successful, therefore in these environments, UV removal is the choice of method to break down ozone in the water.
When Is UV Light Used To Remove Ozone From Water?
Chemicals are added to water to remove residual ozone. The chemicals used include hydrogen peroxide, sodium bisulfite, and calcium thiosulfate.
This method is used to remove ozone from water outside pure water system applications. Adding chemicals to water is widely used in the drinking water industry.
As chemicals can cause potential hazards should they leak, safety sheets must be completed before using chemicals to remove ozone from water.
When Are Chemicals Used To Remove Ozone From Water?
Activated carbon is perfect when dealing with small amounts of ozone because it is very effective in removing small residuals of ozone from water.
The carbon decomposes residual ozone in water via a catalytic chemical reaction.
When Is Activated Carbon Used To Remove Ozone From Water?
As already mentioned, ozone has a very short life span in water. It is estimated that ozone only lasts between 1 and 2 hours when dissolved in water, however, ozone will start to decay the minute it is produced.
On average, ozone concentrations will reduce by half after 20 minutes in water.
Ozone in water can be measured using a manual ozone test kit or ozone meter. Ozone is measured in ppm (parts per million), and it is easily correlated to the mV (millivolts) reading on an ORP (oxidation-reduction potential) meter to provide you with an accurate ozone reading.
An ORP meter measures if the water is either oxidized or reduced. ORP meters are essential for measuring cleanliness in water systems and the breakdown of waste products, debris, and contaminants.
At Atlas Scientific, we have a variety of ORP probes – from consumer-grade ORP to industrial grade, depending on the level of accuracy and intensity of your measurement environment.
Ozone is added to water to remove contaminants and improve water quality, however, methods must be used to reduce or eliminate the residual ozone.
The three main ways to remove ozone from water are decomposition of ultraviolet (UV) light, adding chemicals, and using activated carbon.
If you have any questions regarding ozone or ORP measurements, or what ORP probes will best suit your needs, please do not hesitate to reach out to the world-class team at Atlas Scientific.
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