Ozone Machines for Container, Area, Surface, and Equipment Sanitation
Made by Carlsen & Associates in the USA
Tiny Bubbles: The Silver Bullet?
Made in USA Ozone
Ozone Machines are talked about like a silver bullet. Truthfully, there is not much in the microbial realm which can survive contact with an appropriate amount of ozone in water. There is still substitute for good, sound procedures for completing your process in a clean and safe atmosphere. Being careful to make sure that the facility is clean and as sanitary as possible will lead to a better product and more sales.
One common issue in barrels can be helped by using ozone.
As careful and clean as the next guy, some winemakers are still faced with an outbreak of Brettanomyces (Brett). Arguably, some brett in an otherwise fantastic wine is OK. when its bad, it is going to ruin the bottle. Ozone will not completely erase Brett in barrels. It will control the population to the point where it is under control in the winery.
Most commonly used as one part of a complete cleaning program, ozone is a way to increase the safety margin for sterility of your tank room, bottling line, barrels, and some types of process equipment. Things have to be clean first. sterile is second.
A word of caution:
Some are marketing their ozone machine with an outlet valve to generate ozone gas into a closed area. You may have heard the stories about the worker found dead at the bottom of a wine tank. This story is usually about CO2 and is the explanation for the signs that say "Danger- Confined Space" and "Peligro" on the tanks. If you think that CO2 is dangerous, do some research on Ozone Gas. It is frightening how this very useful tool can be harmful or fatal if misused. Proper ventilation is required during use of ozone. Outdoor work with ozone is encouraged. Use of ozone safety level alarms where ozone use indoors may occur is encouraged. Use of a mask approved for indoor ozone use is wise and encouraged.
There are cases where a clean, careful, and experienced winemaker is looking for barrel cleaning that is easier, more thorough, and more effective. This is where a a good solid barrel washing system comprised of a pressure washer, a barrel cleaning head, and some ozone makes life easier.
The way that a typical ozone generator works is by pulling oxygen from the local atmosphere and sending it through a small field that electrically excites the oxygen gas and changes the gas from O2 to O3 (ozone). On our machine, the ozone gas is then sent through an intercooler to increase density. In the next step, the ozone gas is injected into the water that you supply the machine. The "extra" oxygen atom in the ozone attacks available (or oxidizable) bacteria, etc. that it touches, or becomes unattached and finds a new, harmless place to live again after about twenty minutes. Ozone is quite simply the most reactive substance known to man. For comparison, ozone makes Chlorine Bleach look like Kool- Aid.
The critical points here are that the ozone gas bubbles are carried by the water and the water is the transportation for the sterilizing ozone. The water should be cold and not under extreme pressure so that it can carry the ozone to what you are trying to kill. Impingement of the water carrying the gas creates the potential for separation of ozone and water. This is not to say that ozone machines in general do not carry ozone to the target better without some back pressure.
In application, ozone contact time with the surface to be sterilized is the key to success. This is where the question of what is to be sterilized is raised. If water contact is critical, pay special attention to how the machine is used.
You can buy a machine that makes 16 trillion tons of ozone, but if the system is not designed well enough to embed the ozone into the delivery medium (water), then the "strength" of the machine is unimportant. The same can be said for a poor water supply. Even the biggest, baddest ozone machine on the planet will be rendered useless by water with a high bio- load. Where the hole in this logic exists is when you are treating a closed chamber that will hold the temporary ozone gas and allow gas-to-surface contact. But that's not really our aim. Trying to purposefully gas a container without water is potentially dangerous.
In a perfect scenario, great water and an effectively designed system for application of ozone will require the least amount of contact time because of the concentration of the gas in the stream, not the "size" of the ozone generator. There are bargain machines out there, but is the tradeoff in contact time worth your additional man hours and wasted water?
You will need a minimum of five gallons per minute of water to run our machine. Our ozone machines prefer a small amount of backpressure and the use of a high flow, low restriction spray ball to disperse the water.
We will help you design your ozone application procedure and provide training and two years of warranty and service when you buy our machine. Our ozone machine is built around a Pacific Ozone platform with Carlsen fabrication and electronics throughout. Longevity is a given.
One common issue in barrels can be helped by using ozone.
As careful and clean as the next guy, some winemakers are still faced with an outbreak of Brettanomyces (Brett). Arguably, some brett in an otherwise fantastic wine is OK. when its bad, it is going to ruin the bottle. Ozone will not completely erase Brett in barrels. It will control the population to the point where it is under control in the winery.
Most commonly used as one part of a complete cleaning program, ozone is a way to increase the safety margin for sterility of your tank room, bottling line, barrels, and some types of process equipment. Things have to be clean first. sterile is second.
A word of caution:
Some are marketing their ozone machine with an outlet valve to generate ozone gas into a closed area. You may have heard the stories about the worker found dead at the bottom of a wine tank. This story is usually about CO2 and is the explanation for the signs that say "Danger- Confined Space" and "Peligro" on the tanks. If you think that CO2 is dangerous, do some research on Ozone Gas. It is frightening how this very useful tool can be harmful or fatal if misused. Proper ventilation is required during use of ozone. Outdoor work with ozone is encouraged. Use of ozone safety level alarms where ozone use indoors may occur is encouraged. Use of a mask approved for indoor ozone use is wise and encouraged.
There are cases where a clean, careful, and experienced winemaker is looking for barrel cleaning that is easier, more thorough, and more effective. This is where a a good solid barrel washing system comprised of a pressure washer, a barrel cleaning head, and some ozone makes life easier.
The way that a typical ozone generator works is by pulling oxygen from the local atmosphere and sending it through a small field that electrically excites the oxygen gas and changes the gas from O2 to O3 (ozone). On our machine, the ozone gas is then sent through an intercooler to increase density. In the next step, the ozone gas is injected into the water that you supply the machine. The "extra" oxygen atom in the ozone attacks available (or oxidizable) bacteria, etc. that it touches, or becomes unattached and finds a new, harmless place to live again after about twenty minutes. Ozone is quite simply the most reactive substance known to man. For comparison, ozone makes Chlorine Bleach look like Kool- Aid.
The critical points here are that the ozone gas bubbles are carried by the water and the water is the transportation for the sterilizing ozone. The water should be cold and not under extreme pressure so that it can carry the ozone to what you are trying to kill. Impingement of the water carrying the gas creates the potential for separation of ozone and water. This is not to say that ozone machines in general do not carry ozone to the target better without some back pressure.
In application, ozone contact time with the surface to be sterilized is the key to success. This is where the question of what is to be sterilized is raised. If water contact is critical, pay special attention to how the machine is used.
You can buy a machine that makes 16 trillion tons of ozone, but if the system is not designed well enough to embed the ozone into the delivery medium (water), then the "strength" of the machine is unimportant. The same can be said for a poor water supply. Even the biggest, baddest ozone machine on the planet will be rendered useless by water with a high bio- load. Where the hole in this logic exists is when you are treating a closed chamber that will hold the temporary ozone gas and allow gas-to-surface contact. But that's not really our aim. Trying to purposefully gas a container without water is potentially dangerous.
In a perfect scenario, great water and an effectively designed system for application of ozone will require the least amount of contact time because of the concentration of the gas in the stream, not the "size" of the ozone generator. There are bargain machines out there, but is the tradeoff in contact time worth your additional man hours and wasted water?
You will need a minimum of five gallons per minute of water to run our machine. Our ozone machines prefer a small amount of backpressure and the use of a high flow, low restriction spray ball to disperse the water.
We will help you design your ozone application procedure and provide training and two years of warranty and service when you buy our machine. Our ozone machine is built around a Pacific Ozone platform with Carlsen fabrication and electronics throughout. Longevity is a given.