Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Development of a Novel Ferroelectric, Cathode-Based Ozonator for Drinking Water Treatment
EPA Contract Number: 68D98149Title: Development of a Novel Ferroelectric, Cathode-Based Ozonator for Drinking Water Treatment
Investigators: Kumar, Nalin
Small Business: UHV Technologies Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: September 1, 1998 through March 1, 1999
Project Amount: $67,832
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , SBIR - Water and Wastewater , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
According to the 1997 National Water Quality Survey commissioned by the Water Quality Association (WQA), one out of five Americans is dissatisfied with the quality of his/her household water supply (The 1997 National Consumer Water Quality Survey of 1003 adults was conducted nationally from April 3-6, 1997 by Opinion Research Corporation International of Princeton, New Jersey, an independent research firm). The survey showed that adults between the ages of 18 and 34 show significant increases in their level of dissatisfaction compared to a similar survey taken in 1995. One-third of consumers surveyed (32%) currently use a home water treatment device other than bottled water, compared to 27% in 1995. The purchase of water treatment equipment at department/discount stores has tripled since 1995 (up from 7% to 21%), and the use of "entry level" devices such as pour-through pitchers with filters has grown more than any other type of water treatment device on the market. In addition, households earning between $15,000 and $25,000 were two times more likely to purchase water treatment equipment than two years ago. These survey results regarding consumers' purchase activity in the home water treatment industry provides an opportunity for development of improved drinking water purification technologies for home use.Ozone based disinfection of drinking water is considered to be safer, less hazardous alternative to chlorination. The use of ozone for disinfection is increasing for these reasons. However, ozonation can be an expensive process due to high capital cost of ozone generating equipment and power usage. The current leading approach for ozone generation utilizes a silent corona discharge. This technology is over 100 years old and despite considerable recent activities, corona based ozone generation is characterized by low ozone yields (3-6 percent by weight) and low electrical efficiency. Majority of the applied electric power is dissipated as heat at corona electrodes due to inefficient nature of the corona discharge. Furthermore, corona discharge based systems are bulky, require very high voltages and often are economically viable in large-scale installations only. Many of existing, commercially available ozone generators are also expensive, energy inefficient and are unsuited to produce point-of-use ozone at low cost. As a result of these shortcomings, there is a substantial need for low cost, high efficiency ozone generators which do not use high voltages and can be made compact for use in residential, industrial and other applications. A compact, low cost ozone generator potentially will have great utility in many water treatment applications. If readily available, this ozone generator will be extensively employed in many point-of-use and medium scale water disinfection applications.
In this phase I SBIR project, the feasibility of fabricating a compact, power efficient, low cost and low voltage ozone generator based on ferroelectric cathodes was demonstrated. It was found that under controlled driver power supply excitation, it is possible to sustain a steady ozone discharge even at atmospheric pressure. We believe that the results obtained during this project support the basic idea proposed in the phase I proposal that the ferroelectric cathodes can be used to generate ozone at atmospheric pressure. In addition, we have observed that the preliminary data supports the proposed idea that a ferroelectric cathode based ozonator is more efficient in generating ozone than an UV source or a wire corona discharge. An improvement of 3-5 factor was observed at the same air pressure. Based on these data, we have developed two high efficiency ozonator designs for further improvements and commercialization during phase II project.
UHV Technologies, Inc. has developed expertise and specialized equipment to evaluate these cathodes during this project, and we believe that this equipment will be very beneficial during the second and commercialization phases of the ozonator development. The main advantage of UHV's ozonator over the state-of-the-art is that the use of ferroelectric cathode allows lower voltage operation and results in higher efficiency and lower cost/price. Additionally, our system will have the following benefits:
* Compact size
* No need for moving parts, thereby less weight
*
Portability due to compact size, less weight, higher ruggedness and no moving
parts
* 110V operation
* Allows many configurations that are conformal
to many applications.
We find commercialization possibilities to be attractive for this technology. Our discussion with a handful of representatives from the drinking water industry indicated that there is considerable interest in the marketplace to develop small amounts of ozone at low costs. Because many bottled water companies are small and regional, a method for producing ozone in relatively small quantities cost effectively is of interest to them. Additionally, pre-commercialization survey done by Foresight, Inc. suggests that the consumers will use UHV Technologies' ferroelectric cathode based ozonators technology for the following reasons:
* Safety/toxicity: on-board ozone sensor/cut-out circuit to prevent
inadvertent release of unused ozone into environment
* Gas flow obtained
from compact diaphragm pump
* Ozone generation efficiency
* Adaptability
to standard 110V residential power source
* Low cost
We have developed an estimate of the overall market and the share the ferroelectric cathode based ozonator technology can expect. This projection is conservative, as we have considered only the bottled water niche market at this time. Assuming a market share of 1%, one year after market introduction, the sales volume could reach $2 million. This was arrived at by taking 1% of $200 million market share for ozonation in the bottled water niche segment of drinking water treatment market. In five years, this sales volume in this product market could reach over $50 million. Development of a novel ferroelectric cathode based ozonator for drinking water treatment.
Supplemental Keywords:
RFA, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Scientific Discipline, Water, Environmental Chemistry, decision-making, Environmental Engineering, Drinking Water, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, Economics & Decision Making, Market mechanisms, alternative disinfection methods, ozone, natural disinfection, Novel Ferroelectric, municipal water, treatment, water quality, cost effective, drinking water treatment, water treatment, other - risk managementThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.