New upgrades to the Martin’s Ferry water treatment plant included ozone generators that remove iron and manganese before the water is sent to a distribution pump. The ozone generators were installed about one year ago. The plant has the capacity to produce five million gallons of water daily.
Ozone is widely used to remove iron and manganese from drinking water. Since ozone can be made from air, it does not require the purchase or storage of dangerous chemicals. In addition, ozone is less likely to add undesirable byproducst to the water as some other chemicals might. Ozone generally reverts to oxygen in teh water. There are also situations when more conventional chemicals might not work given the pH of the water or other compounds in the water that might be bound up with the iron making it difficult to remove.
In general, the transferred dose of ozone required is about 0.5 mg of ozone per mg of iron, or 0.9 mg of ozone per mg of mangananese. These doses are relatively small versus other applications of ozone for use such as disinfection. So, ozone can be an economical alternative.