890

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 37, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

Optimization of Large-Scale Ozone Generators

Guido Vezz, Jose L. Lopez, Alfred Freilich, and Kurt H. Becker, Member, IEEE
AbstractIn large-scale ozone generators for industrial or public utilities applications, low-power consumption, robustness of operation, and minimum maintenance requirements are of the highest importance. In order to meet these operational parameters, this paper explores the possibility to use inhomogeneous feed gas processing in a new generation of large-scale ozone generators. We utilize a nite-element model to simulate a discontinuous power induction along the length of the ozone generator tube. The simulation yields the local power density, the local gas temperature gradient, and a relative dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) lamentation packing density. This information, in conjunction with experimental data, provides a sufciently broad basis of information to infer a correlation between the electrode arrangement and the ozone generation efciency and overall ozonizer performance. Several ozonizer congurations were designed, simulated, manufactured, tested, and their performance was assessed. This led to a new design for large-scale ozone generators with the possibility of increasing ozone formation efciency through the tailoring of the DBD microdischarges or microplasmas. The new arrangement tolerates a higher power induction at the inlet of the ozonizer, which has several advantages over constant power induction arrangements. The degree of DBD lamentation emerges as the decisive factor that enables the tailoring of the plasma. Evidence of an increased O3 generation efciency and signicantly reduced electrical power consumption are shown on an industrial-scale ozonizer with more than 100 m2 of active DBD microplasma area. Index TermsAtmospheric plasma, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), ozone generation, water treatment.

I. I NTRODUCTION

VARIETY of factors inuence the design of modern ozone generators. Low electrical power consumption, ease of operation, reduced down-time, and low maintenance are of the highest importance in ozonizers for large-scale industrial or public utilities applications. On the other hand, smaller scale applications place a premium on ease of operation and reduced cost per ozonizer unit over power efciency. The scale of the ozonizer required for a specic application has led to a vast

Manuscript received November 29, 2008; revised January 30, 2009. First published April 3, 2009; current version published June 10, 2009. This work was supported by Degrmont Technologies Ltd. and in part aided by basic plasma research grants from U.S. Air Force Ofce of Scientic Research (AFOSR) Electro Energetic Physics Program and American Chemical Societys Petroleum Research Fund, along with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research equipment grant to Saint Peters College. G. Vezz was with the Corporate Research and Development, Degrmont Technologies (Ozonia), Ltd., 8600 Dbendorf, Switzerland. He is now with the Research and Development Division, Alcon Grieshaber AG, 8203 Schaffhausen, Switzerland (e-mail: gc_vezzu@bluewin.ch). J. L. Lopez and A. Freilich are with the Department of Applied Science and Technology, Physics Division, Saint Peters College, Jersey City, NJ 07306 USA (e-mail: joselopez@spc.edu; afreilich@spc.edu). K. H. Becker is with the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA (e-mail: kbecker@poly.edu). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPS.2009.2015452

range of different ozone generator designs that are commercially available nowadays. The current status of ozone generator technology and the state of the existing scientic understanding of ozone generation has recently been reviewed by Kogelschatz [1]. While ozone can be produced readily by chemical or photolytic methods, these approaches have been conned to small-scale laboratory applications [2], [3]. Small amounts of ozone can further be created by electrolysis in electrochemical cells, which are exclusively used for the preparation of ultrapure water for manufacturing processes in the microelectronics and pharmaceutical industries [4]. Most commonly, ozone is generated in electrical discharges using a variety of corona discharges [5] or dielectric barrier (or silent) discharges (DBDs) [6] at ambient temperature and pressure. Essentially, all large-scale industrial ozone generators use DBDs, which create nonequilubrium lamentary discharges [1], [6]. The DBD works in various regimes of gas breakdown to produce ozone in a feed gas of either (dry) air, pure oxygen, or controlled oxygen/nitrogen mixtures. The typical large-scale ozone generator design has a grounded outer electrode that serves as a gas/water tube heat exchanger and that surrounds a tubular inner electrode covered with a dielectric material, which is connected to a high-voltage power source. The feed gas processing occurs in lamentary DBD microdischarges between these two electrodes. Different engineering realizations generally differ in the diameter, length, and arrangement of the tubular electrodes, along with the type of the dielectric material that covers the inner electrode. The dielectric serves an essential function by limiting the amount of charge transported by a single microdischarge and is an important factor that determines the spatial distribution of the microdischarges across the electrode area [6]. Maintaining the discharge gap and the thickness of the dielectric layer within very tightly controlled tolerances guarantees a homogeneously (i.e., nearly statistically) distributed lamentary DBD pattern and, therefore, facilitates constant and reproducible feed gas processing. The typical operation of these concentric cylinders electrodes relies on Townsend-like or streamer microdischarges, which might be used in a continuous mode to produce a pronounced lamentary discharge pattern or in a pulsed mode to produce a discharge pattern that looks more homogeneous. The electrical power required to produce 1 kg of O3 covers a wide range of values ranging from 7.5 to 10 kWh for pure oxygen feed gas to as high as 20 kWh for air. Furthermore, these numbers are different in different regimes of background ozone concentrations and depend on the cooling conditions, and, to some extent, on the scale of production. In large-scale industrial applications, ozone concentrations ranging from 9 to

0093-3813/$25.00 2009 IEEE

VEZZ et al.: OPTIMIZATION OF LARGE-SCALE OZONE GENERATORS

891

13 wt.% in an almost pure oxygen feed gas (where 1 wt.% equals 10 000 ppm O3 ) in quantities ranging from 20 to several hundred kilograms of ozone per hour can be provided to the end user. As one would expect, the ozone concentration rises with the amount of energy deposited in the gas, at least at low ozone concentrations. Ultimately, there is a saturation concentration, which depends strongly on the gas temperature in the discharge gap, which in turn, can be regulated with an effective water cooling heat exchanger. Cooling water temperatures around 30 C are found at most ozone production sites in the U.S. and in Asia. Lang et al. [7] reported the optimum electrode arrangement under such operating conditions obtained from extensive experimentation. Here, we report results that pertain to one critical aspect of the next generation of large-scale ozonizer technology by investigating the correlation between the electrode arrangement and power induction on one hand and the ozonizer properties and ozone generation efciency on the other hand. Predictions from a nite-element model that simulates the power induction into the gas along the length of the discharge gap and takes into account the local background conditions were correlated with previously measured experimental data using a single adjustable tting parameter. Several electrode arrangements of different design were selected, manufactured, simulated with our model, and tested in a series of experiments. We note that the results of the present work have the objective of proposing new methods to improve the ozone generation efciency that are exclusively applicable to large-scale ozonizers.

ing water temperature gradient, and average gas pressure. Both arrangements have an identical discharge gap and differ only in the thickness of the dielectric layer. 1) Past studies indicate that the degree of lamentation increases with increasing thickness of the dielectric layer [10], which was shown by means of Lichtenberg gures. 2) The microdischarges may be best described as electron avalanche laments directed opposite to the electrical eld gradient. The heads of the single electron avalanche laments will cause the dielectric to saturate after breakdown, which initializes ambipolar diffusion. The increase of CD in (1) increases the inuence of ambipolar diffusion, which leads to a reduced power induction potential of the electrode arrangement. In order to achieve the same power induction of the electrode arrangement as obtained from an arrangement with a thinner dielectric layer, Upeak in (1) needs to be adjusted. From this, the -parameter is found to increase with increasing thickness of the dielectric layer. The correlation of these two phenomena justies the interpretation of the parameter as the packing density of the spatial distribution of the microdischarge laments (while still maintaining its original meaning). The spatial resolution of the locally induced power is then obtained from a nite-element approach P (q, V )measured = P (, CD,i , Umin,i , Upeak , f ). (2)

II. E XPERIMENTAL T ECHNIQUE A. Numerical Simulation of the Power Induction If one slices the entire length of a segment of a concentric cylindrical DBD ozone generator into n components, the electrical power coupled into the ith slice can be calculated by the extended Manley formula [8], [9]
n

Here, q denotes the power density and V refers to the volume. The variation in the discharge conditions (local discharge condition) is taken into account by slicing the electrode arrangement into n pieces or n equal discharges volumes. 1) The local breakdown voltage is 60% of the local Paschen breakdown voltage in pure oxygen. The corresponding measurements (charge versus voltage Lissajous plot [9]) indicate even smaller values. 2) Ozone buildup prole: Ozone is generated in the laments of the microdischarges and diffuses immediately after its generation into the gap volume. Therefore, the efciency of ozone generation strongly depends on the local ozone background concentration, which governs the ozone loss reactions. The ozone loss reactions, in turn, increase with ozone background concentration. The ozone buildup prole is asymptotic, which can be adequately approximated by a third-order regression term. In this paper, two-thirds of the outlet ozone concentration was assumed to be generated by one-third of the total applied power. 3) Local Umin : At p = 2 bar, a measured power density of q = 3.5 kW/m2 , a measured average cooling water temperature of 20 C, and a frequency of 450 Hz, the following correlation was determined: Umin = 0.05c + 2.2 kV, where c is the ozone output in weight percent. This yields a value of 50 V/wt.% of O3 under these conditions. A value of 170 V/wt.% of O3 was determined by Kogelschatz et al. [10] in earlier experiments. An increase

P = 4f
i=1

CD,i

1 Umin,i (Upeak Umin,i ) [kW] 1 + i

(1)

where Upeak and Umin,i refer, respectively, to the peak voltage needed to induce the power P and the minimum voltage needed to sustain a continuous discharge in the ith slice (in kilovolts), f denotes the excitation frequency, and CG,i and CD,i are, respectively, the gap capacitance and the dielectric capacitance of the ith slice (in nanofarad). The parameter i denotes the ratio CG,i /CD,i and the so-called -parameter was rst introduced by Kogelschatz et al. [9] to account for the partial activation of the available discharge area at the lowest electrical loads, particularly in the presence of mechanical imperfections in a realistic electrode arrangement. In a more general approach, the -parameter is utilized as an adjustable parameter to t model predictions to measured data. This can be motivated by a comparison of two electrode arrangements, which are operated under identical operating conditions, i.e., power density, outlet ozone concentration, average cooling water temperature, cool-

892

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 37, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

Fig. 1. Example of ozone concentration versus efciency according to (3).

Fig. 2. Projection of a multidimensional regression model. Ozone concentration (in weight percent) and discharge gap (in millimeters) versus power efciency (in percent).

of 100 V/1 wt.% of O3 yields a consistent approximation for the entire range of operating conditions and is added to the above local breakdown voltage. 4) Local gas pressure: A linear decrease from inlet to outlet is assumed. 5) Local gas temperature: The total gas temperature increase of usually 5 C was split according to the locally dissipated power. Several iterations are required to adjust the value of in (1) so that the simulated induced power equals the measured power. The information about the measured power must be retrieved from measured data or regression models [11], expressed as a function of the typical operational conditions in the ozonizer. In this paper, regression models were used to determine the power efciency, rms-voltage, rms-current, power factor, and pressure loss for each electrode arrangement. Thus, the nite-element simulation was calibrated against measured data, which is a prerequisite to project the estimated model parameters from the intrinsic properties of the investigated plasma physics. The information obtained includes the distribution of the locally induced power, the prole of gas temperature increase, and the determination of the average lament packing density of the electrode arrangement which is compared with the corresponding measured results. B. Denition of Efciency The term efciency is used in this paper as dened according to = 0.82/Es 100 [%] (3)

between ozone formation and destruction and formation and to a poisoned state caused by NOx -related plasma chemistry in air (or the presence of N2 in the feed gas). C. Selection and Specication of Electrode Arrangements In order to focus the present investigation on the most promising electrode arrangement geometry, advanced methods of nonlinear regression analysis were utilized to search in a database containing several thousand sets of steady-state measurement results. The so-called TakagiSugeno Fuzzy regression model [12] indicated a cone-shaped discharge arrangement, as shown in Fig. 2 [13], as the most promising arrangement. This further validates the work of Lang et al. [7], where an optimum discharge gap of around 0.3 mm was stated for operation in oxygen at ozone concentrations around 12 wt.%. The correlation between power induction and efciency was established by investigating three specic electrode power induction patterns: 1) a linearly increasing power induction from the inlet to the outlet; 2) a linearly decreasing power induction from the inlet to the outlet; and 3) a nonlinear or discontinuous power induction. Several tested and manufactured electrode arrangements are summarized in Table I, which includes information about the size of the discharge gap and the capacitance of the dielectric. Each position represents a tubular enamel-coated electrode of approximately 0.5-m length and 0.056-m diameter inserted into a stainless steel tube. The four electrodes are connected in series, which makes them act as one electrode in relation to the gas ow. However, from the point of the electrical circuit, the four electrodes are connected in parallel. The reference electrode arrangement is a standard Ozonia AT98 conguration, which is used in oxygen-fed large-scale ozone generation plants. This particular ozonizer has a constant power induction and is therefore a classical representative of a constant feed gas processing ozone generator. It will be compared to arrangements B through G with varying power induction and therefore nonlinear or discontinuous feed gas processing.

where denotes the power efciency in percent, 0.82 refers to the binding energy O2 O3 in kilowatthours per kilogram, and Es is the specic energy consumption in kilowatthours per kilogram. Fig. 1 shows an example of an ozone concentration versus efciency curve. The so-called single-pulse efciency is obtained at zero O3 concentration. Due to increasing loss terms, a nonlinear increase of Es is observed as the O3 concentration increases. The classical ozone generator has an upper limit in terms of O3 concentration, which is related to a tradeoff

VEZZ et al.: OPTIMIZATION OF LARGE-SCALE OZONE GENERATORS

893

TABLE I SELECTION OF ELECTRODE ARRANGEMENTS. EVERY ARRANGEMENT B THROUGH G CONSISTS OF FOUR ELECTRODES OF APPROXIMATELY 0.5-m LENGTH AND APPROXIMATELY 0.056-m DIAMETER. THE SIZE OF THE DISCHARGE GAP, GAP(1)GAP (4) AND CAPACITANCE OF THE DIELECTRIC, CD (1)CD (4) ARE SPECIFIED FOR ALL FOUR POSITIONS (1: INLET; 2 AND 3: CENTER; 4: OUTLET)

D. Test Rig and Measurement Devices The test rig utilized in our studies complies with the ISO 9000 quality regulations of Ozonia, Ltd. [14] and has the following main components: 1) Four-hundred-fty-kilovoltampere power supply with a kilohertz regime capable transformer; 2) Seven-tubes generator with four electrodes per tube; 3) Mass ow controller for oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases; 4) Back-pressure control loop with pressure controller; 5) UV/Visible absorption spectrometer with cuvette for ozone concentration measurement; 6) IR absorption spectrometer for measurement of NOx and other side products; 7) Gas and cooling water temperature sensors at generator inlet and outlet; 8) Gas pressure sensors at generator inlet and outlet; 9) HV and current probes connected to a three-phase power meter; 10) Chiller with cooling water mass ow controller; 11) Oscilloscope for Upeak /Umin determination. In order to obtain the highest reproducibility in the results, regular control measurements with known electrode arrangements were performed in parallel. III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION A. Simulation of the Local Power Induction Table II shows simulated results of the investigated electrode arrangements of Table I with their specic operational parameters. The peak voltage Upeak is found to vary with the size of the average discharge gap, which is an experimental result obtained from the regression models. Simultaneously, the average packing density varies with the electrode arrangement in a fashion where values larger than one indicate an increased packing density compared to the reference arrangement. It is apparent that the arrangement F has the highest value and the lowest average capacitances CD (1) DD (4). Arrangement G has the highest discontinuity in the local power density, while arrangement B demonstrates the highest variation of the gap to dielectric capacitance ratio (1) (4), local power density q(1) q(4), and fraction of applied power fq (1) fq (4). Arrangement C is the only conguration with an increasing fraction of applied power from the inlet to the outlet.

In summary, the power induction pattern is found to be sensitive to changes of the design parameters displayed in Table I. Furthermore, the system response is sufciently robust to design and control an advanced power induction pattern. Tailored plasma processing becomes possible, particularly as it relies on already implemented requirements for the precision manufacturing processes. B. Correlation Between Power Induction and Efciency A graphical illustration of the simulated power induction patterns as summarized in Table II is shown in Fig. 3. The complementary information about power efciency relative to the reference electrode arrangement is added to the axis with the arrangement letters. It is clear that arrangement B is found to be too aggressive in the sense that long-term operation is not possible as the generator starts to pulse itself. Arrangement C is the only electrode arrangement with an increasing power induction pattern, which is, however, less efcient. Arrangements D through G show a gradually increasing fraction of applied power at the generator inlet. Of all the proposed ozonizer arrangements, it seems that the power induction pattern of arrangement F is the optimum conguration. A higher resolution of the nite-element simulation reveals even more detailed information. Fig. 4 shows a simulation of arrangement F with 100 slices (refer to (1) for detailswe note that the lowest resolution simulation used only four slices). It appears that the high local power density is applied at low ozone concentrations and transitions toward smooth plasma processing at higher ozone concentrations. The temperature prole indicates a favorable gradient at lower ozone concentration. Furthermore, the high average discharge lament packing density is obviously a consequence of the long section of smooth power induction. The set of properties of arrangement F is completed with information about the burn-in time. Burn-in is related to the buildup of a metallic oxide layer on the surface of the electrodes and of the stainless steel tubes. Arrangement F is found to accomplish burn-in almost 50 times faster than the reference arrangement, which conrms the predicted signicant increase in surface contacting. Effectively, two major hypotheses have to be taken into consideration. First, the observed efciency increase is due to the favorable temperature gradient at low ozone concentrations, which is achieved by a specic power induction pattern. Second, the observed efciency increase is

894

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 37, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

TABLE II PROPERTIES OF ELECTRODE ARRANGEMENTS INCLUDING INFORMATION ABOUT ELECTRODE DESIGN PARAMETER, SETTINGS, AND RESULTS OF THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION. THE OZONE OUTPUT c, AVERAGE GAS PRESSURE p, PEAK VOLTAGE Upeak , THE PACKING DENSITY , THE DIELECTRIC CAPACITANCE CD , THE GAP TO DIELECTRICS CAPACITANCE RATIO , THE POWER DENSITY q, AND THE FRACTION OF LOCALLY APPLIED POWER fq ARE SHOWN IN THE TABLE. THE POSITION ALONG THE GENERATOR TUBE IS INDICATED BY INDICES, 1: INLET; 2 AND 3: CENTER; 4: OUTLET

Fig. 4. Finite element simulation (n = 100) of an ozone generator tube assembled with four serial connected electrodes according to arrangement F. The temperature curve is valid for cooling water cross ow. Fig. 3. Graphical illustration of simulated power induction patterns. Each pattern is paired with information about the efciency relative to the reference electrode arrangement.

due to the balance and degree of discharge lamentation at low and high ozone concentration. The decreased efciency of arrangement G disproves the rst hypothesis as the sole dominating effect. The degree of discharge lamentation and its balance between low and high ozone concentration is obviously a substantial part of the observed efciency increase. However, the subsequently observed efciency increase is mostly likely due to a combination of both factors. C. Characteristics of an Optimized Electrode Arrangement The electrode arrangement of an ozone generator may be optimized to the needs of the application and/or to the conditions of operation. A global optimization scheme for large-scale systems would include adjusting the power induction pattern to

increase power efciency and tailoring the discharge laments or mirodischarges to maximize robustness for all conditions of operation. Fig. 5 shows the conceptual design needed for the realization of the discontinuous feed gas processing discussed in this paper. This ozone generator was manufactured and successfully operated on a large scale. The ability to optimize the microdischarges for the ozone formation process means essentially nding a compromise between having excessive energy losses due to ions in weak microdischarges and avoiding undesired arcing and chemical side effects, if the microdischarges become too strong. The strength of a microdischarge can be characterized by the amount of charge transported by the microdischarge or by the energy density deposited in the discharge channel after termination of the current ow [15]. After the termination of a microdischarge, the generated ozone diffuses out of the volume of the current lament. Since the electric eld is reduced at

VEZZ et al.: OPTIMIZATION OF LARGE-SCALE OZONE GENERATORS

895

Fig. 5. Schematic of the Intelligent Gap System introduced by Degrmont Technologies (Ozonia), Ltd. in 2007. A short high-load inlet region with lower degree of lamentation is followed by a long region with a high degree of lamentation. The degree of lamentation is also illustrated by the Lichtenberg pictures [15] situated at the bottom of the electrode centers.

maintained without any problems, even at increased cooling water temperatures and at high power densities. IV. C ONCLUSION A tailored degree of lamentation or the ability to control the number of microdischarges at low and high ozone concentrations benets the ozone generation process in terms of reduced power consumption and an increased regime of useful ozone concentration generation. In summary, the ideal situation for large-scale ozone synthesis in a DBD may require highly lamented discharges where the preferred characteristic of the microdischarges is Townsend-like at reduced electric elds E/n around 190 Td as obtained from our model. Furthermore, smaller discharge gaps than 0.3 mm require thick dielectric layers to maintain a good degree of lamentation at reasonable efciency. The technology presented in this paper is best suited for large-scale ozone production capacities of up to several hundred kilograms per hour at concentrations between 6 and 13 wt.% where the corresponding electrode designs have a length of up to 3 m and are bundled to several hundred square meters of active DBD area. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the R&D group at Degrmont Technologies (Ozonia), Ltd., in Switzerland lead by R. Merz and F. Krogh with the support of R. Gisler and M. Mller. The leadership and encouragement of B. Paolini, Vice President of Technology of Degrmont Technologies (Ozonia), Ltd., in Switzerland is gratefully acknowledged. R EFERENCES
[1] U. Kogelschatz, Industrial ozone generation: Historical perspective, current status and future prospects, in Proc. IOA 17th Ozone World Congr., Strasbourg, 2005, pp. II.1-1II.1-10. [2] U. Kogelschatz, Advanced ozone generation, in Process Technologies for Water Treatment, S. Stucki, Ed. New York: Plenum, 1988, pp. 87120. [3] M. Salvermoser, D. Murnick, and U. Kogelschatz, Inuence of water vapor on photochemical ozone generation with efcient 172 nm Xe excimer lamps, Ozone: Sci. Eng., vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 228237, May 2008. [4] S. Stucki and H. Baumann, Applications of electrochemical ozone generators in ultrapure water systems, in Process Technologies for Water Treatment, S. Stucki, Ed. New York: Plenum, 1988, pp. 191203.

Fig. 6. Ozone concentration versus efciency at constant power density, cooling water temperature, pressure, and frequency. The classical curve ts only in the low ozone concentration region. The high ozone concentration region shows a linear trend.

this particular location, further microdischarges will occur at other positions in the gap. The increase of ozone concentration essentially results through the action of a large number of microdischarges. The ozone that is formed will typically be exposed to the action of several hundred or thousand microdischarges before it reaches the end of the discharge tube. The optimum ozonizer design provides the appropriate power induction to raise the amount of energy deposited in the feed gas to tailor the necessary number of microdischarges that will lead to higher ozone generation concentrations. The exact implementation of these criteria leads to an ozonizer with remarkable properties (Fig. 6). The classical shape of an efciency curve is shown as the dashed line, which has a pronounced concentration limit. The measured data can be tted by the classical curve in the low ozone concentration region only. An almost linear trend is found in the high ozone concentration region, which deviates from zero- and rst-order kinetics as suggested by Hirth et al. [16]. An efcient and robust system is exclusively obtained from optimized discharge arrangement, i.e., from a tailored degree of discharge lamentation or density of microdischarges. The proof of concept was obtained on a large scale in a socalled Duplex vessel with a total active ozone generation area of 112.7 m2 and a production capacity of approximately 60 kg/h at 10 wt.% of ozone concentration. An ozone concentration of approximately 16 wt.% (see Fig. 6) could be achieved and

896

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 37, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

[5] K. H. Becker, U. Kogelschatz, K. H. Schoenbach, and R. J. Barker, Eds., History of non-equilibrium air dischargesCorona discharges, in Series in Plasma Physics: Non-Equilibrium Air Plasmas at Atmospheric Pressure. Bristol, U.K.: Inst. Phys. Publ., 2005, pp. 4768. [6] B. Eliasson, M. Hirth, and U. Kogelschatz, Ozone synthesis from oxygen in dielectric barrier discharges, J. Phys. D, Appl. Phys, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 14211437, Nov. 1987. [7] H. V. Lang, G. Vezz, and M. Suter, Science and experience based improvements of industrial ozone generators, in Proc. IOA 17th Ozone World Congr., Strasbourg, 2005, pp. II.3-1II.3-10. [8] T. C. Manley, The electrical characteristics of the ozonator discharge, Trans. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 84, pp. 8396, Dec. 1943. [9] U. Kogelschatz and J. Mller, Zndverhalten und Leistungsaufnahme von Ozonisatoren, Brown Boveri Corp., Baden, Switzerland, Tech. Rep. KLR 82-187 B, 1982. [10] M. Hirth and U. Kogelschatz, Zusammenhang Zwischen Entladungsstruktur Und Wirkungsgrad Im Siemens-Ozonisator, Brown Boveri Corp., Baden, Switzerland, Tech. Rep. KLR 81-72 B, 1981. [11] D. C. Montgomery, Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York: Wiley, 2001. [12] R. Babuska, Fuzzy Logic for Control. Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1998. [13] G. Vezz, Intelligent Gap System, Ozonia Ltd., Dbendorf, Switzerland, Tech. Rep. HKH-107000, 2005. [14] G. Vezz, Prfung AT Prfstand, Ozonia Ltd., Dbendorf, Switzerland, 2006. ISO Instruction HQM-108144, Revision A. [15] B. Eliasson and U. Kogelschatz, Nonequilibrium volume plasma chemical processing, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 10631077, Dec. 1991. [16] M. Hirth, U. Kogelschatz, and J. Mller, Der Einuss von geometrischen Toleranzen auf den Wirkungsgrad von Ozonisatoren, Brown Boveri Corp., Baden, Switzerland, Tech. Rep. KLR 83-104 B, 1983.

Jose L. Lopez received the B.S. degree in physics from Saint Peters College, Jersey City, NJ, in 2000 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Since 2005, he has been an Assistant Professor of physics with the Department of Applied Science and Technology, Physics Division, Saint Peters College. His current research activities include a number of areas in low- and high-pressure plasmas including extensive work with microplasmas.

Alfred Freilich received the Professional Engineer degree in metallurgy and materials science from the School of Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, in 1973 and the Ph.D. degree in physics/materials from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, in 2005. He was with the Corporate R&D, Allied Signal Corporation, Morristown, NJ, and Armco Steel Corporation, Middletown, OH, from 1975 to 1989. From 1990 to 2001, he was a Professor of material science with the College of Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Since 2005, he has been a Visiting Research Professor of physics with the Department of Applied Science and Technology, Physics Division, Saint Peters College, Jersey City, NJ.

Guido Vezz received the Dr.sc.nat. degree in physics from ETH Zrich, Zrich, Switzerland, in 1999. He was with the Corporate Research and Development, Degrmont Technologies (Ozonia), Ltd., Dbendorf, Switzerland, until 2007. He is currently with the Research and Development Division, Alcon Grieshaber AG, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Kurt H. Becker (M03) received the Dipl. Phys. and Dr.rer.nat. degrees from the Universitt des Saarlandes, Saarbrcken, Germany, in 1978 and 1981, respectively. From 1984 to 1988, he was with the Faculty of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. From 1988 to 1997, he was with the City College of New York, New York. From 1997 to 2007, he was a Professor and the Director of the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ. Since 2007, he has been an Associate Provost for Research and Technology Initiatives and the Dean of Sciences and Arts with the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn, NY. His research interests include experimental atomic, molecular, and gas discharge physics, with an emphasis on the study of electron-driven processes in environments, ranging from singlecollision experiments to processes in high-pressure discharge plasmas. Dr. Becker is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.