How to build your own Ozone Machine

for cheap

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This is dangerous, so proceed with care. If you die, it's your own
dumb fault.

OZONE

Ozone (O3) is one of the most powerful known oxidizers. As a disinfectant, it is about
3,000 times more effective than chlorine. It will kill any kind of bacteria, virus, fungus,
yeast, or any other living cell on contact and it will generally wreak havoc with any kind
of organic molecule. And yet it's remarkably fun to play with.

Ozone lacks a key property that makes disinfectants like chlorine and fluorine so harmful
-- the ability to persist in the body. Primarily because it spontaneously reacts with itself to
revert back to normal oxygen, ozone does not typically penetrate deeply into tissue or
persist in the lungs or blood or elsewhere in the body. The most significant risk when
playing with ozone is to the lungs, which it can severely irritate. Great precaution should
be taken in that regard. IF YOU ARE ASTHMATIC, FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO
BUILD.

OZONE USES

Ozone is widely used for disinfecting or sterilizing drinking water, aquarium water, waste
water, and pool/spa water, deodorizing/disinfecting air or surfaces, sterilizing operating
rooms, food preparation, food storage, insect and disease control in grain storage, and for
a number of useful chemical reactions (see wikipedia article on ozone).

I have used it to store bread for extended periods, preventing it from becoming stale or
growing mold; curing athlete's foot in just a few days (by enclosing the foot in a plastic
bag filled with ozone once per day); destroying airborne and surface mold and mildew
and associated odors after basement flooding, disinfecting and deodorizing a dryer after a
possum died in the exhaust vent, neutralizing noxious fumes from sprayed insecticides,
and general deodorization.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MACHINE

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.
Figure 3b. (long exposure)

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.
Figure 7.

The machine works by discharging electrons into the air (called a corona discharge),
which encourages the available oxygen molecules (O2) to rejoin together into ozone (O3).
Overlapping sections of metal screen are separated from each other by glass and given
opposite alternating charges of around 10-20 kV. The high voltage causes electrons to
free themselves from the the metal, and into the surrounding air, blocked by the glass
from reaching the oppositely charged electrode. Localized sections of glass can get very
hot, so Pyrex is used. The free electrons then combine with atmospheric O2 to form it into
O3, (i.e. 3 O2 → 2 O3). To a lesser degree it also encourages the formation of compounds
from available N2. It's a good idea to exclude materials other than the metal and glass,
such as any kind of glue, from the reaction zone, as such materials would very likely
become subjects of further reactions. The plasma effect from the freed electrons causes a
blue glow around the overlapping metal elements. Air is blown through the reaction zone
to move the ozone out and new oxygen in, and this also helps to preventing overheating.
The outside of the active element should remain cool enough so that plastic is an
acceptable material for the enclosure.

BUILDING THE MACHINE

To build this ozone machine you'll need about $30 worth of parts from eBay, plus stuff
some other odds and ends you might already have around the house. Here's everything
you'll need:

• A neon sign transformer (preferably around 10 kV)

• A pyrex glass guitar slide (prefereably large)
• A small amount of steel or aluminum screening
• A short-length section of clear tubing for an enclosure of the active element.
• A medium-length section of general tubing, such as a vacuum hose.
• A blower -- this part depends on your main use for your ozone machine. A small cooling
fan would be ideal for most cases. If you're ozonating water, you probably want to use an
air pump that is suited to pumping gas into water. Or if you if you want real high
performance, you could probably use a vacuum cleaner motor! You'll preferably want
something that takes AC mains power, so you can splice it in with the power supply for
your transformer.
• A soldering iron and solder
• Electrical tape.
• Duct tape.
Step 1: Cut two strips of the metal screening. The width of strips should be a little less
than the length of the guitar slide. The length of the strips should be 4 or 5 inches. Each
strip should also be cut so as to have a small tab sticking out by an inch or so, along the
axis of the width, which will be used as the soldering point for the wire from the
transformer.

Step 2: Wrap the strips into springy cylinders. Shape them so that one will snuggly fit
into the inside of the guitar slide, and the other will snuggly fit over the outside. Solder
the leads from the transformer to the tabs of the strips, and cover with electrical tape. You
might want to add some solder to the outer cylinder to help it keep its shape. It should
now look like figure 1.

Step 3: Insert the inner cylinder into one end of the guitar slide, and slide the outer
cylinder over the opposite end. Wherever the two overlap is where the reaction will take
place. It's important to prevent any overlapping section from approaching either edge of
the slide, as that would allow the electrical arc to jump the gap. Similarly, look for and
trim off any stray wires that might serve as a path for wayward electrons. It should now
look like figure 2

Step 4: Plug in the transformer, and see if it works! If so, should see a blue glow and a
quiet crackling or buzzing noise (see figure 3). If you are not getting a short circuit and
not getting a glow, you might have too much surface area for the voltage being supplied
by your transformer. In that case, try adjusting the amount of section overlap, by sliding
the cylinders out away from the tube (figure 4) or back in (preferably after shutting off
the power). Ideal results are the maximum overlapping surface area that produces a
clearly visible plasma effect.

Step 5: Place the device inside the clear tube enclosure. You will have to slide out one of
the cylinder elements to do this, and then replace it. Once the cylinder elements are back
in their proper positions, secure each cylinder edge to the glass slide edge with electrical
tape to keep them there. Only tape outside the area of reaction (the overlap area).
Otherwise the tape is likely to burn, melt, or get otherwise involved in the plasma
reaction.

Step 6: Secure the inner device in place within the outer enclosure using electrical tape as
necessary. If you can secure it so the outer cylinder doesn't contact the outer tube, so
much the better, but in my experience it is not a problem for it to touch. The metal gets
warm, but as you can see in figure 5, it's the glass that bears the brunt of the abuse from
the electrons. You might want to cut notches in your outer enclosure for the transformer
leads to exit out of. You should now have something like figure 6.

Step 7: Using duct tape, attach your tubing or vacuum hose pieces to either end of the
enclosure, allowing the transformer wires to come out through the duct taped seal. Then
attach your blower to one end. Preferably it's AC powered, so you can splice its power
cord with the transformer's so you can have a common power cord. Because of the high
voltages involved, it's probably a good idea to connect the ground wire of the power cord
to the blower chassis, to prevent it from accumulating charges. My completed project
looks like figure 7, but depending on your application, you may not want to use as much
tubing length, and your blower will preferably be less bulky than mine.

Step 8: Go ozonate something! Take care to prevent humans, pets and livestock from
inhaling of high concentrations of ozone.

ANECDOTAL SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

In my experience, a room can be safely ozonated at high levels by leaving it unoccupied

and its doors closed while running the ozone machine for an extended period. After
turning it off, leave the room unoccupied until the smell of ozone in the room is no longer
strong. It is to be expected that you will be able to smell the ozone in other parts of the
house. (If you are married, and you can't smell it in other parts of the house, it is to be
expected that your wife will be able to smell it in other parts of the house -- It's possible
your wife might not like the ozone machine until you do something substantially useful
with it.)

The ozone machine should NOT be run for extended periods in an occupied room. If you
are in the same room as your operating ozone machine, be aware of any sensations of
irritation or tickling to your throat or lungs. If you experience this, you have inhaled too
much ozone! Go outside immediately! If you fail to do so, you may soon reach a
threshold where it will suddenly become difficult to breath, and fresh air will not
immediately resolve the situation. This is a very unpleasant sensation. ...er, I mean I
would imagine it to be.

I have in the past treated upper respiratory infections by blowing ozone into my mouth
while preventing its entry into my trachea and lungs by closing my glottis. (Of course,
you should have the foresight to fill the lungs with air before closing the glottis.) While,
to my knowledge, I suffered no ill effects from this procedure, I have no quantifiable data
as to its efficacy, safety, or, for that matter, sanity.

The other safety consideration is in regard to fire. I think the best way to mitigate this risk
is to stress-test the machine -- that is, run the machine for, say, 3-4 hours under controlled
conditions. If that goes without incident, it could be presumed safe for shorter periods of
time as well. Also, every time you start it up, visually inspect the active mechanism to
make sure there is no damage, and no movement of parts that might produce a short.
Make sure that there is no coronal discharge too close to the edge of the glass. If
attempting any of the every-day applications below, careful thought should be given for
how to safe-guard the device in this regard.

SUGGESTED FURTHER PROJECTS USING THE OZONE MACHINE

1) Since the reaction of 3 O2 → 2 O3 should decrease the air pressure (complete

transformation of available oxygen into ozone should decrease the air pressure by 7%, as
it will reduce the oxygen pressure by 1/3, and oxygen contributes 21% to the total
pressure), an enclosed sealed container could detect this suction effect with a pressure
switch under the lid. Therefore, a sealed box could be fashioned to use the ozone
generator in a closed loop, activated by such a switch to maintain a high level of ozone
within the box at all times. This "ozone box" could be used for a variety of useful things,
depending on the shape and size of the box:

a) A bread box. This would automatically keep bread fresh for extended periods,
preventing staleness and mold growth. (I believe cheese would similarly benefit. It would
be a great place to thaw meat, preventing the browning of the outside as it thaws. I don't
believe it would add much value to fruit storage, since fruit tends to rots from the inside
out.)

b) A diaper pail. Anti-bacterial, no-smell diaper disposal. There would be an inner frame
to hold a replaceable garbage bag.

c) Clothes chest/bag. Infuse worn clothes with ozone to sterilize them and get them
smelling fresh again without having to do laundry. However, if you work or play outside
in the mud a lot, or tend to spill food on yourself, you'd still need to do laundry. (This is
the college student project.)

2) An oxygen collector. Since ozone is heavier than air, a device could be made to
segregate the ozone from the air based upon weight. Once the ozone is segregated from
air, it can be allowed to revert to oxygen, leaving you with a collection of pure oxygen.

3) A CO2 generator. If you prepare a tub of water with dissolved charcoal in it, and bubble
the output of the ozone machine into the water (using a dissolver attachment from an
aquarium store), the device should in theory become a CO2 generator, producing the
reaction, C + 2 O3 → CO2 + 2 O2 in the water. So the net reaction for the whole machine
becomes C + O2 → CO2. While you could, of course, produce a similar reaction by
burning the charcoal that only works while there is a large concentration of oxygen in the
atmosphere to maintain the flame (and also comes with a number of other drawbacks).
The CO2 generator, on the other hand, could be used in a closed-system sealed
greenhouse structure to convert the vast majority of available O2 into CO2, thus causes
significantly accelerated plant growth, and simultaneously creating an atmosphere
uninhabitable for bugs and fungi.

I may or may not ever build any of these. However, if you build one, or something
similar, send me a picture and I'll put it on this page.