Ozone: Science & Engineering

The Journal of the International Ozone Association

ISSN: 0191-9512 (Print) 1547-6545 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/bose20

Proposed OS&E Requirement: Measuring Ozone

Dosage

J. (Hans) van Leeuwen

To cite this article: J. (Hans) van Leeuwen (2015) Proposed OS&E Requirement:
Measuring Ozone Dosage, Ozone: Science & Engineering, 37:2, 191-192, DOI:
10.1080/01919512.2015.1006467

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01919512.2015.1006467

Published online: 12 Mar 2015.

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Ozone: Science & Engineering, 37: 191–192
Copyright © 2015 International Ozone Association
ISSN: 0191-9512 print / 1547-6545 online
DOI: 10.1080/01919512.2015.1006467

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Proposed OS&E Requirement: Measuring Ozone Dosage

J. (Hans) van Leeuwen
Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Ag and Biosystems Engineering and Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa
State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Dear Editor, recommendation that these, or similar methodologies become

A frequent irritation over 25 years as an editorial board a rule for acceptance of manuscripts for review.
member of Ozone: Science & Engineering is submissions that
use the period of ozonation as a measure of ozone dosage.
Calculation of Ozone Dosage
I believe OS&E should have a rule in place about a more sci-
Ozone Feed Rate
entifically based measurement of ozone dosage for acceptance
of manuscripts. The approach to be followed should be a simple mass bal-
In years gone by, when ozone treatment of water and ance over the ozonation reactor. The first step is to determine
wastewater was an emerging novelty to most readers, sim- the ozone feed rate from the ozone generator at a certain
ply bubbling some ozone at a certain production rate for setting. This can be measured by determining the ozone con-
a certain period through samples of water and wastewa- centration in the gas phase by a number of approaches, but
ter and observing some phenomena such as color removal, the most common approach, as described by Rakness et al.
organic oxidation, or disinfection provided enough justifica- (1997) is to measure the gas concentration by a wet chemistry
tion for publication. I remember 35 years ago, when OS&E redox reaction or using a commercial UV meter, calibrated
was still just starting up, such articles appeared regularly and with redox colorimetry. The gas phase concentration, multi-
were accepted by the scientific community, albeit somewhat plied by the feed gas flow rate, will define the ozone feed
grudgingly. rate. A shortcut method for small systems is to measure the
However, current manuscripts with ozone dosages reported total ozone content of the feed stream using a wet chemistry
in this manner are flabbergastingly inadequate. I find it an method over a certain period. This can then be used to calcu-
insult to OS&E readers when the authors provide all the late the ozone feed rate, probably in ozone mass units per time
information to calculate a dosage but fail to do so, expect- unit, e.g. g/min.
ing the reader to calculate how much ozone has to be dosed
to achieve the described effects of ozonation. Some authors Applied Ozone Dosage
report bubbling ozone through a sample for, say 10 or 15 min, The applied dosage can be calculated by multiplying the
no indication of the actual ozone dosage, and then couple period of ozonation with the application rate and divided by
the results with very sophisticated analytical methods to mea- the sample volume and commonly expressed in mg/L, where
sure the ozonation effects, expressing COD changes or the the volume represents the sample volume. Many chemists also
removal of a specific compound in up to four significant like to express such a dosage in mol/L. While these values
figures. Obtaining such results without specifying the ozone have the same units as concentration, these are, of course, not
dosage is clearly senseless in advancing science and tech- concentrations.
nology. I would therefore like to briefly review some simple
approaches to calculating and reporting ozone dosages with a
Consumed Ozone Dosage
The consumed dosage should be calculated wherever pos-
Received 12/29/2014; Accepted 1/8/2015
Address correspondence to J. (Hans) van Leeuwen, Civil, sible. This can be achieved by ozonating the sample in a
Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, closed vessel and passing the exiting gas through a measuring
476 Town Engineering, Ames, IA 50011, USA. device to determine the amount of unused ozone. The unused

Letter to the Editor March–April 2015 191

quantity of ozone after any period of the ozonation process suspended biological growth in wastewater treatment. Ozone
should be subtracted from the ozone applied over the same is used, for instance, for hydrolyzing biomass to lower the bur-
period in calculating the consumed ozone dosage. This will den of excess biomass disposal; it is then useful to express
again be expressed in mass or mol per volume of sample. the ozone dosage applied or consumed (if possible) as mg
A word of caution: while the applied dosage will probably ozone/g biomass or even mg ozone/ g biomass, the latter
proceed at a constant rate, the ozone loss is linked to the to express the reduction in biomass populations.
progress of the total of many chemical reactions in the reactor. Ozone may also be used to control the growth of spe-
The decreasing concentration of readily oxidizable substances cific undesirable microorganisms in the presence of useful
over the course of a batch ozonation process, in the reactor, microbes, a selective disinfection process, such as avoiding
will result in steadily increasing unused ozone levels in the excessive filamentous bacterial growth in activated sludge sys-
off-gas. Accounting for a variable ozone loss is easiest with tems. The ozone dosage should then be within certain lower
a commercial gas-phase analyzer. Wet chemical methods will and upper limits relative to the biomass. In such cases, the
require a series of tests, each for different operational peri- ozone dosage would be expressed as mg O3 /g biomass, or bet-
ods, to determine total ozone loss over each period. All these ter yet, for continuous operation, g O3 kg−1 biomass d−1 , such
tests would have to be performed at a constant rate of ozone as in Saayman et al. (1989). Ozone may also be used to selec-
application. tively oxidize specific compounds within a biological process.
In many cases, measuring small and dilute ozone losses In this case, the ozone dosage may be expressed simply as
may not be possible, such as in ozonated aerated biologi- mg O3 L−1 d−1 , but in such cases, certain specific dosage rate
cal reactors as a consequence of unavoidable dilution of the applied to solids, in mg O3 g−1 biomass d−1 cannot be ignored
gas phase. Considering a high ozone demand and low dosage in order to preserve the microbial population.
rates, it is reasonable to expect that ozone losses will be min-
imal and this has been confirmed in full-scale applications
of selective disinfection in wastewater treatment (Saayman Recommendation
et al. 1998). Applied dosages would be reported in such It would befit OS&E to adopt a policy to expect authors
research, but, considering the high applied and consumed prepare manuscripts that describe research and development
ozone dosages, these values would be close to equal. on the effect of dosing ozone in an unambiguous and repro-
ducible way. To achieve this objective, authors should deter-
mine the dosage level of ozone on a mass or molar basis
Ozone Dosage Relative to Dissolved Water and express this on a per-volume level or rate or relative to
Constituents a level of concentration of some constituent in the material as
There are cases where the ozone dosage is expressed as treated. Examples of acceptable dosage expressions would be
mg ozone/g COD or mg ozone/g TOC in the sample or as any mass measurement in mg, g, kg, lb, mol, kmol per vol-
mg ozone/g COD or mg ozone/g TOC removed. This would ume in mL, L, m3 , gal, or mass in g, kg, lb, etc., but not per
be calculated from the consumed dosage and the COD or time unit only. If a rate of dosage is expressed, it would be a
TOC concentration or change in concentration. This approach combination of mass or mol per volume, or mass–all per time
could be used also for color removal, where the color would unit, e.g., mg O3 L−1 min−1 .
be expressed in some colorimetric units. The progress in the
reaction for specific compounds may be monitored and then
expressed as the mass ratio or molar ratio of ozone to this REFERENCES
compound. Of course, when kinetic studies are performed, the
reaction rates would be expressed in the appropriate rate units. Rakness, K., G. Gordon, B. Langlais, W. Masschelein, N. Matsumoto, Y.
Richard, C.M. Robson, and I. Somiya. 1996. “Guideline for Measurement
of Ozone Concentration in the Process Gas From an Ozone Generator.”
Ozone Sci. Eng. 18(3): 209–229.
Ozone Dosage Relative to Biomass Saayman, G.B., C.F. Schutte, and J. van Leeuwen. 1998. “Chemical Control
Less commonly, but just as validly, ozone dosage could of Filamentous Ssludge Bulking in a Full-Scale Biological Nutrient
be expressed relative to the solids concentration, particularly Removal Activated Sludge Plant.” Ozone Sci. Eng. 20(1): 1–15.

192 J. van Leeuwen March–April 2015