The availability of safe drinking water is a significant health concern. Waterborne diseases remain one of the most significant threats to human health worldwide, resulting not only in human suffering, but in significant economic loss as well. Ozone (triatomic oxygen) is a potent oxidant with many attributes as a disinfectant including the ability to inactivate a broad spectrum of waterborne pathogens. Although ideal for Point of Use water treatment, ozone has been difficult to generate on a small scale with conventional methods, restricting the use of ozone to relatively large scale water treatment installations. This Phase I study has demonstrated the feasibility of a new miniature electrochemical device for ozone generation. The miniature device is battery operated, portable, and can be manufactured at very low cost (<$10). The method is ideal for small-scale uses. It is possible to use the device to personally disinfect water immediately before water is consumed, by partial immersion of the device in the drinking vessel and allowing it to operate for a few minutes. In Phase I, the potential of this technology was realized by demonstrating a mass producible, compact, self-contained electrochemical generator. The goal of Phase II is to carry out pre-manufacturing tasks, providing a foundation for transitioning the device to the manufacturing environment. The long-term aim is to use technical information from the Phase II research as the basis for commercialization for a variety of pertinent Point of Use markets. Lynntech has assembled a highly skilled team of academic, manufacturing, and sales partners to successfully commercialize the proposed technology.
