Ozone Tech Revolution: Sinokle’s Eco-Friendly Solution for Wastewater Treatment
Ozone (O3), a highly efficient oxidant, sterilant, decolorant and deodorant, has made its related technologies a core solution for environmental pollution and water purification. Ranked as one of the four key technologies in environmental science for the 21st century, ozone technology is widely applied in the degradation of organic matter, inactivation of microorganisms and odor control in air and water bodies.
Core Technical Principles
The key of this technology lies in generating ozone on a large scale through silent discharge achieved by a specific electric field. During this process, high-energy electrons collide with gas molecules, triggering a series of basic physical and chemical reactions that activate gas molecules and form various highly reactive free radicals. These free radicals can effectively catalyze, decompose and transform various harmful chemicals and pathogenic microorganisms, ultimately degrading them into harmless substances and achieving advanced purification of air and water bodies.
Technical Applications
In the water treatment field, ozone technology is mainly applied in various sewage treatment scenarios, including microbial inactivation, odor removal and elimination of polluting components such as soluble organic matter.
Key Characteristics of Ozone Application
• Superior oxidation efficiency and fast reaction rate
• Strong inactivation effect on bacteria, viruses, spores and soft-bodied microorganisms
• Capable of oxidative degradation of soluble organic matter, significantly reducing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of water bodies
• Using oxygen in the air as raw material, which is converted back to oxygen after reaction; it increases the dissolved oxygen content of water bodies and causes no secondary pollution
• Remarkably improves the physicochemical properties of water bodies, with excellent decolorization, deodorization and odor elimination performance
• No toxic by-products such as chloroform or carcinogenic halogenated organics are generated during disinfection, and no substances harmful to the health of humans and animals remain.
Technical Challenges and Bottlenecks
Despite its high redox potential (2.07V, second only to fluorine) that makes it highly effective in drinking water disinfection, decolorization and deodorization, ozone has limitations when used alone for wastewater treatment. First, the reaction between ozone and organic matter is selective; it is difficult to completely mineralize pollutants at low doses and with short reaction time, and some intermediate products will inhibit the oxidation process. Second, the high cost of ozone generation and low utilization efficiency lead to rising operating costs. Therefore, improving ozone utilization efficiency and oxidation performance has become a global research focus.
Current Development Status
In recent years, remarkable breakthroughs have been made in the research and application of ozone advanced oxidation process (also known as Advanced Oxidation Processes, AOPs) worldwide. By combining ozone with other water treatment processes, this technology generates hydroxyl radicals with stronger oxidizability and lower selectivity (with a redox potential of 2.80V). Compared with conventional processes, ozone advanced oxidation process exhibits outstanding performance in the treatment of refractory organic matter, with advantages such as rapid degradation, small floor space, high automation level, no secondary pollution, and low yield of scum and sludge. It has been successfully applied in industries including food, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, printing and dyeing, iron and steel, and water supply.
Ozone was first used as a bactericide in drinking water treatment by Meritens in 1896. The completion of the Bon voyage Waterworks in Nice, France in 1906 is regarded as the origin of drinking water ozonation. Until the late 1970s, ozone technology was still mainly used for disinfection and popularized in regions such as France. In recent years, its application fields have been continuously expanded, showing unique advantages in microbial inactivation, decolorization, deodorization, degradation of refractory organic matter and enhanced flocculation. It has achieved remarkable results especially in the decolorization treatment of dye wastewater, printing and dyeing wastewater and papermaking wastewater, as ozone can realize high-efficiency decolorization by breaking the macromolecular structure of chromophores.
Papermaking wastewater has high BOD/COD, strong chroma and peculiar smell, and contains a large number of harmful substances such as chlorophenols, chloroacetone and chloroform. Part et al. successfully achieved complete decolorization of bleaching wastewater by introducing 32.4 mg/L ozone into a column reactor with a residence time of 3 minutes.
The research team led by Wang Yu treated printing and dyeing wastewater with high-frequency ceramic surface discharge ozone technology, achieving a COD removal rate of 86.6% and a decolorization rate of 98.4% under the conditions of pH 7-8 and 10 hours of reaction. The study pointed out that an acidic environment with pH ≤ 7 can delay ozone decomposition and increase the yield of hydroxyl radicals, thereby improving its utilization efficiency.
Jin Lahua's experiments showed that ozone can effectively improve the biodegradability of comprehensive wastewater from automobile manufacturing plants. A COD removal rate of 60% can be achieved after 2 hours of treatment under the conditions of gas flow 16 L/h, ozone dosage 1 kg/m³ and pH=10. In addition, ozone has been gradually promoted in the advanced treatment of urban sewage: with a dosage of 10-20 mg/L and a contact time of 5-20 minutes, it can reduce COD by 40%, BOD by 70%, SS by 60%, ammonia nitrogen by 20%, carcinogens by 80% and chroma by 90%.
A fine ozone bubble device developed in Japan controls the bubble diameter at 10-100 microns, which increases the gas-liquid contact area by 2000-4000 times and the solubility by 5 times, and also has a high-efficiency mixing function. It has been successfully used in the treatment of wastewater from food, animal husbandry and aquatic product processing. With the continuous upgrading of technology, ozone technology has formed an independent industrial system worldwide and has a broad development prospect.
Innovative Breakthroughs
Based on the research and development of cyclonic dissolved air flotation technology, Sinokle has innovatively integrated the ozone advanced oxidation process, and developed the ozone advanced oxidation - cyclonic dissolved air flotation synergistic technology with independent intellectual property rights. This technology has reached the internationally advanced level and has obtained more than 10 patent authorizations at home and abroad to date, including 1 international patent and 3 domestic invention patents.
On the basis of the high-efficiency combined technology of ozone advanced oxidation and cyclonic dissolved air flotation, Sinokle has further researched and developed the Ozone Advanced Oxidation - Cyclonic Dissolved Ozone Flotation Unit (CDOF). This device integrates numerous technologies such as ultrasonic catalyzed ozonation, chemical flocculation, hydraulic cavitation, cyclonic separation and dissolved air flotation, which greatly improves ozone utilization efficiency and accelerates ozone oxidation reactions. It can rapidly, efficiently and low-costly reduce water pollutants (refractory organic matter, dissolved oil, decolorization, etc.).
Meanwhile, through the combined effects of ozone oxidation and flocculation, the cyclonic dissolved air flotation technology can effectively remove colloidal and dissolved organic matter (which cannot be removed by air flotation alone), and significantly improve the separation efficiency of cyclonic dissolved air flotation. The device realizes the efficient and comprehensive treatment of various pollutants in various refractory wastewater.
