An ozone question...about the biggest ozonator of them all!

[gboulton]

So, I've learned this morning that over the next few days, our Eath Brand (tm) Planetary-Sized Ozonator will be working overtime, driving low level ozone levels through the roof this weekend.

Out of nothing more than idle curiosity...

Will this change my FC consumption?

 

[JasonLion]

Re: An ozone question...about the biggest ozonator of them a

Yes, ozone will consume chlorine, a lot of ozone will consume a lot of chlorine.

 

[gboulton]

Re: An ozone question...about the biggest ozonator of them a

Well now, if I could only find some definite answer on how the EPA's Ozone numbers are dimensioned, i might be able to actually track some results. *heh*

The EPA's "Air Quality Index" is, apparently, a fairly arbitrary number with no units, designed only to give them a scale of "Garden Fresh Unicorn Farts" to "OMG, Stay Inside". They do, however, report low level ozone numbers separate from "Particles", but they still don't give any dimension for it.

A bit of googling suggests it MIGHT be in pphm but I can't confirm this.

Any of you true chemistry nerds got a definite answer?

 

[chem geek]

Re: An ozone question...about the biggest ozonator of them a

If you are talking about ozone in the air, then it will not have any noticeable effect on the chlorine in the water since the amount is too low. The EPA standard for ozone in the air (and is in the same units as the Air Quality Standard) is 75 nmol/mol which is a molar ratio which is equivalent to a volume fraction for gasses and is equivalent to parts-per-trillion. By contrast according to Wojtowicz, commercial CD ozonators typically produce 1-2% by weight ozone though ones used in residential pools are often not much better than UV ozonators in the 0.06 to 0.02% range. 60-70% of the ozone is typically absorbed into the water though even without chlorine, the concentration of ozone getting diluted into the water flow and arriving at the pool inlet would be around 0.01 to 0.03 ppm (10-30 ppb). I know from residential spas that the increased chlorine demand is on the order of 1 ppm FC per day (i.e. 24 hours, but ozonator is not on the entire time) and this equates to 0.68 ppm ozone put into the water and destroyed by chlorine per day in a 350 gallon spa.

So since the concentration of ozone in the air is well over 2000 times lower than in the weakest of pool/spa ozonators (and diffusion rates from air to water are relatively slow), there will be no noticeable effect on the chlorine in the water.

 

[gboulton]

Re: An ozone question...about the biggest ozonator of them a

Thanks, Richard. That was, in fact, exactly what I was asking about...GLO, Ground Level Ozone.

Good stuff, and thanks for the link about ozone treatment as well.