Patent Application
20130224077
The invention relates generally to ozone disinfection and more particularly to systems and methods facilitating distributed aqueous ozone disinfection for reducing bacteria on materials washed with ozonated water.
Current accepted food preparation practices typically result spreading the bacteria that arrived on a food item to the prepared portions of the food item or to other items. Bacteria can lead to food spoilage and other complications resulting in increased costs.
To combat the spread of bacteria, most establishments rinse food items with water upon arrival and also rinse food preparation surfaces and tools with water throughout the day. Water alone does not eliminate bacteria. However, ozone in water has been demonstrated to be effective at dramatically reducing bacteria on materials washed with that ozonated water. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,257, entitled Microorganism Control Of Point Of Use Potable Water Sources to inventor Andrews, issued Oct. 1, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discusses use of an ozone generator for controlling microorganisms.
In a food preparation installation, such as a restaurant or food packaging facility, an ozonated water system typically includes one or more sinks to supply ozonated water from the one or more sinks In installations with several sinks, supplying ozonated water from each sink can be costly. In addition, it may not be physically feasible due to space designed construction and/or aesthetic reasons to provide an ozone generation system at each sink.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a distributed ozone system that would facilitate aqueous ozone disinfection on a distributed basis that is sufficient to be effective at dramatically reducing bacteria on materials and surface areas washed with ozonated water.
The embodiments described herein are directed to systems and methods that would facilitate aqueous ozone disinfection on a distributed basis that is sufficient to be effective at dramatically reducing bacteria on materials and surface areas washed with ozonated water. The system provided herein facilitates the distribution of ozonated water to multiple sinks faucets and outlets while keeping the additional hardware and associated costs at each sink at a minimum. In one embodiment, water supplied to a sink faucet is mixed with ozone to produce ozonated water. The system includes a central ozone generation system coupled to a venture system at each sink. The venturi system can be coupled with vacuum flow switch for system activation. The level of ozonation of the water at each sink may be monitored in real-time by an Oxidation-Reduction-Potential (ORP) meter to verify that the ozone level at each sink is sufficient to disinfect any pathogens present. A vacuum switch is positioned in line with the ozone gas tube coupled to the venturi system and coupled to the ozone generation system to prevent production of ozone until after the flow of water has produced vacuum commenced through the venturi injection system.
A distributed ozone disinfection system has a central ozone generation system, and ozone and water mixing systems. Each of the ozone and water mixing systems is configured to mount to and positionable in a water supply piping at a water supply inlet for a sink faucets or water outlets. The distributed ozone disinfection system has vacuum switches, separate vacuum switches positionable downstream which are in turn separate from the ozone and water mixing systems, and a plurality of oxidation reduction potential (ORPs) meters. The ORP meters are positionable downstream of each of the ozone and water mixing systems. Optionally, the ozone and water mixing system includes a vacuum switch coupled with a gas injection venturi device. The ozone generator can be a corona discharge type ozone generator coupled to a special zeolites and desiccant media air filter/dryer device. A control system design can be coupled to the ozone generation system. The control system includes a vacuum switch to activate the transfer relay upon sensing of sufficient ozone gas flow through the vacuum intake of the venturi system which has water flow passing through by water valve opening. This relay switches to activate power to the ozone generation system for ozone gas production to the venturi system. Each of the plurality of ORP meters are electrically coupled to an indicator light at the sink that indicates to the user of the sink that the ORP is high enough to effectively reduce the bacteria in the food or surface areas washed by the ozonated water. Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the example embodiments will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description.
The details of the example embodiments, including structure and operation, may be gleaned in part by study of the accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, all illustrations are intended to convey concepts, where relative sizes, shapes and other detailed attributes may be illustrated schematically rather than literally or precisely.
It should be noted that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purpose throughout the figures. It should also be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments.
The following callout list of elements can be a useful guide for referencing the callout numbers of the drawings.
Each of the additional features and teaching disclosed below can be utilized separately or in conjunction with other features and teachings to produce systems and methods to facilitate distributed aqueous ozone disinfection. Representative examples of the present invention, which utilized many of these additional features and teachings both separately and in combination, will now be described in further detail with reference to the attached drawings. This detailed description is merely intended to teach a person of skill in aqueous ozone disinfection, the art further details practicing preferred aspects of the present teachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Therefore, combinations of features and steps disclosed in the following detail description may not be necessary to practice the invention in the broadest sense, and are instead taught merely to particularly describe representative examples of the present teachings.
Moreover, the various features of the representative examples and the dependent claims may be combined in ways that are not specifically and explicitly enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodiments of the present teachings. In addition, it is expressly noted that all features disclosed in the description and/or the claims are intended to be disclosed separately and independently from each other for purpose of original disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter independent of the compositions of the features in the embodiments and/or the claims. It is also expressly noted that all value ranges or indications of groups of entitles disclose every possible intermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of original disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter.
The systems and methods provided herein address distribution of ozonated water aqueous ozone to multiple sinks and outlets while keeping the additional hardware and associated costs for installation at a minimum. The present systems and methods also allow the user to verify that the ozone level at each sink is sufficient to disinfect any pathogens present. The present system is particularly suited to use in restaurants, grocery markets, commissaries, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. for ensuring microbial disinfection needed and the freshness and safety of the food.
To keep the added hardware at each sink or water outlet at a minimum, the ease of installation and the price per unit cost low, the ozone is generated at a central location in the facility and piped through tubes to a plurality of sinks or outlets. In a preferred embodiment, up to ten sinks faucets 24 or outlets are preferably supplied with ozone from a single ozone generation system at a distance of preferably up to 175 feet from the location where the ozone is generated. Just before the cold water pipe enters the sink, the water pipe and the ozone tube are connected via a venturi system junction box that mixes the ozone into the water. At the output of the venturi system is an optional oxidation reduction potential (ORP) sensor that measures the level of ozone in the water included is a digital read out of ORP level when the ozone level is appropriate for pathogen reduction, the sensor will cause a light to go on near the sink so that a user can be sure that sufficient aqueous ozone is being generated.
In order that ozone is generated only when it is needed, an air vacuum flow switch attached to the ozone gas feed tube is coupled to the venturi system installed near the sink. This is used to determined when sufficient cold water is flowing into the sink through the faucet. A wire connects this switch to the central ozone generating device. When the vacuum switch coupled to venturi device detects water flowing into the sink creating vacuum, it signals the ozone generating device to begin generating ozone. A small amount of water will flow into the sink before the ozone reaches the sink. This will vary depending on the flow rate of the water and pressure.
To produce the ozone gas the centralized device has a pump that pushes ambient air into the device, a dehumidifier to ensure that the dew point of the pumped in air is sufficiently low for the ozone generator to work effectively, and an ozone generator that uses the corona discharge method for producing ozone. A fan 88 is included to ensure that the device does not overheat.
A system 10, as shown in
The venturi system 50 is preferably a gas injector venturi device, such as a Mazzei® venturi-type, differential pressure injector. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,128. As depicted in greater detail in
Referring to
As depicted in
The control logic for the central ozone generating system 40 is depicted in
In operation, pressurized water is supplied to the system so that water is flowing through the venturi system. When the power switch 73 is turned on for the control board ozone generation circuit 70, the vacuum switch 44 senses whether ozone gas is being fed into and flowing through the venturi system 50 for ozone to be mixed with water supplied to the faucet or to the outlet. If vacuum is detected by the vacuum switch 44, the vacuum switch activates the transfer relay 71. As a result, the transfer relay 71 closes and powers the control board ozone generation circuit 70 which causes the ozone generator 82 to generate ozone gas. With the transfer relay 71 activated, the indicator light 72 is illuminated green. If the vacuum switch 44 does not detect vacuum flow through the gas piping system, the vacuum switch 44 will not activate the transfer relay 71 and, thus, the ozone generation circuit 70 will not be powered to cause the ozone generator 82 to generate ozone. With the transfer relay 71 remaining open, the indicator light 72 is illuminated red. Vacuum switch 44 is a pressure switch of modest specification and does not require extreme pressures such as a perfect vacuum. A vacuum here can be any a difference in pressure and can be slight. The ozone generator 82 can generate ozone gas that can be stored in a reservoir before traveling to the vacuum switch 44.
The example embodiments provided herein, however, are merely intended as illustrative examples and not to be limiting in any way. Moreover, one skilled in the art of aqueous ozone disinfection will readily recognize that familiar systems can be equally adapted with appropriate modification of parameters.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the reader is to understand that the specific ordering and combination of process actions shown in the process flow diagrams described herein is merely illustrative, unless otherwise stated, and the invention can be performed using different or additional process actions or a different combination or ordering of process actions. As another example, each features of one embodiment can be mixed and matched with other features shown in other embodiments.
Features and processes known to those of ordinary skill may similarly be incorporated as desired. Additionally and obviously, features may be added or subtracted as desired. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.
This application claims domestic priority from and is a non-provisional of same inventor Bruce Hinkle's U.S. provisional patent application 61/603,872 filed Feb. 27, 2012 entitled Distributed Ozone Disinfection System, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This application claims domestic priority from and is also a non-provisional of same inventor Bruce Hinkle's United States provisional patent application 61/618,552 filed Mar. 30, 2012 entitled Distributed Ozone Disinfection System, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61603872 | Feb 2012 | US | |
| 61618552 | Mar 2012 | US |
