Development of a Low-Cost Ozone (O3) Generator for Research and Education in Agricultural and Food Applications

Ozone treatment in the food and horticulture product capitalization sectors is widely acknowledged as completely safe for human use, in accordance with the most recent rules of the relevant authorities. Ozone-generating devices for research and education are known to allow the introduction of ozone gas for many uses, especially in food and agricultural applications. Despite their usefulness, their high cost prevents them from being widely available in research and educational institutions in underdeveloped nations, limiting practical training and the development of local applications to support the capacities of the food and agriculture sectors. In this study a device was constructed to generate ozone (O3) using the high-voltage principal circuit. An Arduino board was used to accomplish the control operation. An MQ-131 ozone sensor was utilized to measure the ozone concentration with a measuring unit of (%); however, the detecting range of the MQ-131 sensor is 10~1000 ppb, so in the present study, a formula to covert the measuring units between ppm and (%) for the concentration of the generated ozone (Y) as (Y, %) = 0.0333 × (Y, ppm) was presented. Different ozone concentrations are generated by varying the high voltage level from 20 to 35 kV with an increment of 5 kV and flow rate variations of 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 L/min. It was found that ozone concentration increases with increasing applied high voltage and decreases with increasing oxygen flow rate at a fixed applied high voltage. This study uses experimental data in a multiple linear regression analysis to predict ozone concentration based on levels of high voltage and oxygen flow rate, with a coefficient of determination of 0.7686 using a testing dataset. The findings provide evidence of the viability of constructing an inexpensive ozone generator with inexpensive parts, thereby promoting sustainable technological advancement. Drawing from our research, we can highlight the educational value and cost-effective benefits of employing an ozone-generating device, which can be used to produce ozone for a variety of purposes.