Ozone is widely recognized as one of the strongest oxidant and disinfectants available commercially, and it also be utilized for safe, effective and thorough pipeline disinfection without the disadvantages of outdated methods.

Over 100 years have passed since ozone technology was used to treat drinking water. In the United States, there are about 400 municipal water treatment ozone systems. Ozone technology offers multiple benefits, including the removal of color, elimination of odor and taste, and the reduction of iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide, as well as the control of bacteria, viruses, and parasitic cysts. Additionally, ozone is used effectively as a disinfectant in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, beverage, and electronics industries for many years.

Disinfection Using Ozone For Municipal Water Distribution Pipelines

A fire hose connects to a trailer-mounted ozone system, which uses a fire hydrant for water. Ozone is produced from an air-cooled ozone generator and added to the hydrant water with a packaged pressurized mass transfer system that uses pressurized oxygen from ozone generator.

This process removes the off-gas and discharges it through an ozone destruct unit, leaving more than 90% of the ozone gas dissolved in the process. This minimizes direct flow near plug flow transit and disinfection and allows only water with dissolved ozone to enter into the pipeline. Due to the patented design, operators and the environment are isolated from ozone. Before discharging to a sewer at around 0.1 ppm, the high ozone residual at the pipeline entrance reacts with organisms and decays as it travels down the line, being neutralized by ascorbic acid.

As a result of ozonated water flowing from the trailer to the pipeline at a rate of 200 to 260 gpm, the maximum ozonated water dosage is 4 and 3 mg/L, respectively.

The concentration x time (Ct) value at the end of pipe is the monitored value for pipeline disinfection. Because the pipeline is exposed to higher levels of dissolved ozone (C) for the same amount of time (t), a higher level of disinfection will occur earlier in the pipeline with the end of pipeline ozone residual value.

Before sampling, the trailer typically run for 30 minutes until the residual ozone in the pipeline has either overtaken oxygen naturally (less than an hour) or is flushed with ascorbic acid tablets dissolved in hydrant water.

Benefits Of Ozone For Pipeline Disinfection

The following are the notable benefits of pipeline disinfection with ozone:

  • There are no hazardous chemical storage or transportation processes because the substance is eliminated on site.
  • Rapid and effective Disinfection, it does not need hours before flush and sampling.
  • There is no need for a dichlorination step, resulting in material and labor savings.