AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul.

2007)

The Case Study of 5 kHz 25 kHz High Frequency Adjustment in

Converter Circuit to Generate Ozone Gas
Siseerot Ketkaew
Faculty of Engineering, Ramkhamhaeng University
Bangkok, Thailand
<siseerot@eng.ru.ac.th>

Abstract
This paper presents a case study on changing the switching frequency in a
converter circuit to generate ozone gas using a high-voltage, high-frequency, switching
power supply. This supply uses a flyback converter of 100 VA (Output 3 kV), the
operational frequencies are from 5 kHz to 25 kHz, and the control circuit uses a pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) technique. Under the one-hour test of the ozone generator at
wind velocity of 0.259 x 10-6 m3/sec, the switching frequency of 5 25 kHz can generate
ozone gas of 99.6 120.5 mgO3/hr.
Keywords: switching frequency, flyback converter, ozone gas, control circuit.
ozone gas. Therefore, both the voltage level
and the applied frequency have to be controlled
during the generation of ozone gas (Dalarat et
al. 2004).
The energy range being used to produce
ozone gas from chemical components is from
493 kJ/mol to 762.23 kJ/mol. The adapting unit
has the required energy within the range from
5.583 kWh/m3 to 8.631 kWh/ m3. Since there is
only 21% oxygen in the air, the required
energy should be within the range from
1.17243 kWh/m3 to 1.620 kWh/m3. It is
enough to generate ozone gas in the gap of
two-layer electrodes connected in series.
(Dalarat et al. 2004).

Introduction
Nowadays, the ozone gas is widely
brought to use for living needs such as using
ozone to clean vegetables instead of using
manganese, to kill diseases and to reduce the
quantity of chlorine in water. However,
bringing ozone to clean the air has some
drawbacks. For example, if it is used at high
concentration, it can irritate the body. It is
health effective only if its quantity is properly
controlled for a given application. Therefore,
the control of the quantity of ozone gas should
match some required technical specifications.
This is the main reason to study the artificial
generation of ozone gas. This paper presents an
evaluation of the effect of changing the
switching frequency in a converter circuit to
generate a particular ozone quantity. The highvoltage high-frequency circuit is constructed
by using the principle of switching the ac
power supply. A high-voltage high-frequency
signal is supplied to the load consisting of twolayer electrodes connected in series to produce
ozone gas. The generation of ozone gas is
based on the principle of spreading molecules
of oxygen. One can produce ozone gas on the
basis of the equation O2 + O = O3. The ozone
gas can withstand a high voltage level. Also,
the heat affects the quantity of the occurring
Technical Report

The Process of Generating Ozone Gas

The air comprises mainly of 79%
nitrogen (N2) and 21% oxygen (O2). The rest
are inert gases and steam. The ozone gas is a
gas consisting of 3 oxygen atoms under
unstable status with easy dispersion that
depends on both the environment and the
density of the produced quantity. The
production procedure relies on the process of
generation of a free oxygen atom from an
oxygen molecule in the air. After that the free
oxygen atom is combined together with an
oxygen molecule to obtain ozone gas (O3)
42

AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul. 2007)

which is brought to use in both industrial and

health systems. The occurring process of ozone
gas generation forms from two sub-processes
ionization process and dissociation process.
The ionization, spreading of gas, is based on
the increment of electron avalanche leading to
an insulator breakdown where the electric
current flows through the border line of the
insulator. This follows to the occurrence of
heat due to the current flow of the insulator
breakdown which causes the ozone gas to
disintegrate due to its lower energy. Therefore,
the ozone gas production should not result in a
breakdown, i.e., the electron energy from the
electric field should be lower than the
ionization energy, but it should be high enough
to separate the oxygen atoms (Ketkaew 2005).

Fig. 1. Co-core
structure.

cylinder:

Ozone

tubes

Co-core Cylinder:
Ozone Tubes Structure

Fig. 2. Block-diagram of ozone generator.

The Gauss's law for the electric field says

that the electric flux through any closed surface
is proportional to the amount of electric charge

Block-Diagram of
Ozone Gas Generator

contained within that surface, Q = D d A .

Fig. 2 shows the ozone gas generator,

which is constructed with the use of the highvoltage, high-frequency, switching power
supply. The ac input voltage is 180 V, 50 Hz,
needed by the rectifier circuit to produce the dc
voltage of 255 V. The dc voltage signal is
delivered to the inverter controlled by PulseWidth Modulation (PWM) in order to obtain
the operational frequencies within the range 5
kHz 25 kHz. The low voltage signal of the
inverter of the primary circuit is amplified to
the 3 kV High-Frequency High-Voltage (HFHV) signal of the secondary circuit which is
fed into the electrode tube for the generation of
the ozone gas.

The electric field of a co-core cylinder of

length l and radius r, r1 r r2, (see Fig. 1) is
given by (Dalarat et al. 2004):
E (r ) =

Q 1
.
2 l r

(1)

The voltage, V, across between both cylinders

is given by:
re

r2

r
Q dr
Q
=
ln 2 .
2 l r
2 l r1
r1

V = E (r )dr =
r1

(2)
Therefore:

E (r ) =

, r1 r r2 .
(3)
r2
r ln
r1
The maximum electric field stress occurs on
the inside of cylinders surface and is given by:

E MAX = E (r1 ) =

V
r1 ln

Technical Report

r2
r1

Electrode Tube Design and Energy

Use
The principle of ozone tube design relies
on an unsmooth electric field for the generation
of the ozone gas quantity. Therefore, a twolayer electric insulator is chosen for the
electrode design due to the permittivity ()

(4)

43

AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul. 2007)

differences of the electric insulator. It is

suitable for the generation of a non-uniform
electric field to have variable but close to
values of each layer under electric field stress.
As shown in Fig. 3, a two-layer co-core
cylinder for ozone tube design is chosen under
the following conditions (Ketkaew 2005):
- Silica is chosen for the 1st layer electric
insulator due to its effectiveness in generating
ozone gas, where 1 = 8, the diameter is 2.9 cm
and the length is 18 cm.
- Air is chosen for the 2nd layer electric
insulator, where 2 = 1.
- Cathode frilled aluminum (for rubbing
pots) in filament coil inside of the silicas
electric insulator is used. The reason is that
aluminum has a high conductivity.
- The anode is a stainless steel cylinder,
where the diameter is 3.3 cm and the length is
18 cm.

Fig. 3. The structure of electrode tube.

Calculation of Electric Field (E) and

Voltage (V) of Ozone Tube

Design of HF-HV Switching Power

Supply

In Fig.3: r1 = 1.35 cm, r2 = 1.45 cm, r3 =

1.59 cm, l = 30 cm. For energies from 5.58
kWh/m3 to 7.73 kWh/m3, if the air is composed
of 21% oxygen (O2), the chosen energy range
is 1.172 1.620 kWh/m3 (Ketkaew 2005). As

The high-frequency, high-voltage, (HFHV) switching power supply of high-ripple

voltage is controlled by IC LM555. Switching
devices, power MOSFETs IRFP460, are used
in the flyback converter controlled by the
PWM strategy from IC LM555 (National
Semiconductor
2006).
The
switching
frequencies range from 5 kHz to 25 kHz. The
energy from the converter is transferred
through the HF-HV transformer to produce the
HF-HV high-ripple voltage supplying the
electrode tube. The structure and the circuit of
this supply are shown in Figs. 4 and 5.

Air volume = (r3 r2)2 x l

= (1.591.45)2 x 30 = 1.846 cm3, (5)
with maximum energy per volume (Wmax) of
1.620 kWh /m3 and minimum energy per
volume (Wmin) of 1.172 kWh/m3, then:
Wmax = 1.620 x 103 x 1.846 x 10-6 = 0.00299 Wh,
Wmin = 1.172 x 103 x 1.846 x 10-6 = 0.00216 Wh.
Emin and Emax are obtained from Eq. (6) below:
1
W = E 2 dv ,
(6)
2 Vol

2Wmin
2 0.00265
=
Vol
8.854 10 12 2.262
= 16.273 kV/cm,

Emin =

2Wmax
2 0.00366
=
Vol
8.854 10 12 2.262
= 19.129 kV/cm.

Emax =

Technical Report

Fig. 4. The structure of HF-HV converter

circuit.

44

AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul. 2007)

Fig. 5. High-frequency, high-voltage, (HF-HV) converter circuit.

Experimental Results

Table 1. Results of testing the breakdown

voltage of the electrode tube.

Results of Measurements of Signals of the

IC LM555 and the Output Voltage of the
HF-HV Transformer

Order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

The switching frequency is 25 kHz. The

results of testing the breakdown voltage of the

electrode tube are shown in Table 1. The

average value of the breakdown voltage is
VBreakdown (avg.) = 35.38 / 10 = 3.538 kV.
One should use 3 kV because it is lower than
the breakdown voltage (see Fig. 6). The
experimental set-up is shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

Technical Report

45

Breakdown voltage kV
3.51
3.53
3.51
3.52
3.58
3.53
3.52
3.59
3.53
3.56

AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul. 2007)

Results of the Used Switching Frequency

Adjustment and the Ozone Gas Quantity

(a)

The tests are conducted at 3 kV constant

output. The experimental results are shown in
Table 2 and the meaning of each parameter is
explained below:
- f (kHz) is the frequency of the converter;
- Vin(rms) (V) is the input voltage of the
converter;
- Iin(rms) (A) is the input current of the
converter;
- Pin (W) is the input power of the
converter;
- PF is the power factor of the converter;
- Vout (kVdc) is the output voltage of the
converter;
- Ozone quantity (mgO3/hr) is the ozone
gas generated by the ozone generator.

(b)

Fig. 6. (a) VGS and VDS signals of the power

MOSFETs; (b) Output voltage of the HF-HV
transformer at 3 kV.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 7. (a) The equipment for testing the

breakdown voltage; (b) The testing of the
breakdown voltage of the electrode tube
(Ketkaew 2005).

Conclusion
From the experiments for the study of the
effect of changing the switching frequency, one
can evaluate the process of ozone gas
production. The experimental results in Table 2
demonstrate the relationship between the
switching frequency and the quantity of
generated ozone gas. With the increase of the
switching frequency, increased quantities of
ozone gas are generated because the shifting of
the frequency level in the converter circuit has
an effect on the production resonance at the
ozone tube. Therefore, the quantity of
generated ozone gas changes accordingly.

Fig. 8. HF-HV transformer.

Table 2. Results of the used adjustment of the switching frequency and its effect on the ozone gas
quantity of the ozone generator (the constant output voltage is set to 3 kV).
f
(kHz)
5
10
15
20
25

Technical Report

Vin (rms)
(V)
180
180
180
180
180

Iin (rms)
(A)
0.63
0.63
0.63
0.63
0.63

Pin
(W)
79.38
79.38
79.38
79.38
79.38

46

PF
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.6

Vout
(kVdc)
3
3
3
3
3

Ozone quantity
(mgO3 /hr)
99.6
104.2
110.8
116.1
120.5

AU J.T. 11(1): 42-47 (Jul. 2007)

References

Fig. 9. The chemical components

equipment being used during the tests.

Chryssis, G. 1989. High frequency switching

power supply. McGraw Hill, New York,
NY, USA.
Dalarat, J.; Sreeuthaiporn, T.; Namkratok, Y.;
and Rooptong, W. 2004. A study and
construction of high voltage high frequency
full bridge inverter for ozonizer. Master
Thesis in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Mahanakorn University of Technology,
Bangkok, Thailand.
Ketkaew, S. 2002. Air cleaner by using high
voltage electrostatic. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf.
on Power System Technology. Kunming,
China, 13-17 October, pp.1611-1614.
Ketkaew, S. 2005. The study of ozone gas
generating technique using high frequency,
high voltage dc switching power supply of
high ripple voltage (in Thai). Journal of
King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Lat
Krabang 22 (2): 1-6.
Mohan, N.; Undeland, T.M.; and Robbins,
W.P. 1989. Power electronics: Converters,
applications, and design. John Wiley &
Sons, New York, NY, USA.
National Semiconductor. 2006. LM555
Datasheet, pp. 1-12.
Rattanawichain, P. 2002. Ozone generator for
solar energy. Master Thesis in Department
of Electrical Engineering. Faculty of
Engineering, King Mongkuts Institute of
Technology Lat Krabang, Bangkok,
Thailand.
Trerutpicharn, S.; Deeon, S.; and Potivejkul, S.
1996. High voltage high frequency
transformer for testing insulator. 19th
Electrical
Engineering
Conference,
Bangkok, Thailand, 7-8 November.

and

The ozone gas quantity, which the ozone

gas generator produces, can be used widely and
applied for solving the environmental
problems.
Fig. 9 shows the quantity of ozone gas
occurring after using chemicals for testing. The
chemicals in this figure include also potassium
iodine (KI). The ozone gas is initially put into
KI. This affects the change of the solution
color from transparent to yellow. Starch liquid
pours into this solution that makes the solution
to change its color again. The color will be
dark blue. Then, sodium thiosulphate is used in
tritratation in order to change the color from
dark blue to transparent in the end. This
method can detect and test the ozone gas
quantity.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the
Department of Environment, Faculty of
Engineering, Ramkhamhaeng University, for
the support in conducting the experiments. The
assistance of Ms. Munlica Kanjan is also
appreciated.

Technical Report

47