Ozone

[ScottD50]

I couple of brewery's I know use a Mclain Ozone generator for sanitation and have been very happy with it. On Mclains website it talks of
reducing BOD in wastewater with Ozone. Does anyone have any thoughts on this or experience.

Thanks,
Scott

[gbrower]

We had some ozone guys stop by once and there claims about what ozone does didn't match up with most empirical data. I talked to some lab people and they told me it won't kill everything even at higher ppm. My next biggest worry was hoses, seals, and gaskets. Ozone is real hard on most seals and gaskets. I also heard it was hard on stainless but I don't know much about that.

The machine cost was a issue for us too. The one I looked at was 10k and didn't have very much for a warranty past 3 months. I heard there is a diffuser part and a compressor that normally wear out and require replacement at considerable cost too.

All in all it did look good on the paper from the ozone company but in my opinion the system is a just not good enough for a brewery.

[TGTimm]

Peracetic acid (PAA) is very effective at delivering atomic oxygen to the places you need to sanitize, and much cheaper than another piece of problematic equipment.

Ozone is a very reactive gas and toxic to humans. We tried an O3 generator for a serious stench problem we had years ago--it made the stench worse, discolored the paint on the walls, and made the area uninhabitable until all the O3 had cleared out.