ISSN: 1693-6930 33

Application of Resonant Converter in Ozone Generator(Mochammad Facta)

APPLICATION OF RESONANT CONVERTER
IN OZONE GENERATOR MODEL


Mochammad Facta
1
, Zai nal Salam
2
, Zolkafl e Bin Buntat
3

1
Energy Conversion (Encon) Department
2
Encon and Inverter Quality Control Center (IQCC) Department
3
High Voltage and High Current Institute (IVAT)
University of Technology Malaysia (UTM), Skudai Johor Bahru
Correspondence author: +60 755 35829, e-mail: facta@ft.undip.ac.id


Abstrak
Ozon adalah salah satu oksidan yang menguntungkan untuk digunakan di rumah
tangga dan industri sebagai disinfektan dalam proses pengolahan makanan, ruang
penyimpanan makanan, sebagai pengurang bau, perbaikan air tanah, dan pemurnian air
minum. Metode teknis yang umum digunakan untuk menghasilkan ozon adalah dengan
menggunakan tegangan tinggi dan frekuensi rendah. Metode semacam ini memiliki kelemahan
berupa efisiensi energi yang rendah, peralatan yang berukuran besar dan terlalu berat .
Makalah ini mengulas penggunaan elektronika daya dalam rangkaian inverter beresonansi
untuk menghasilkan arus bolak-balik berfrekuensi tinggi. Rangkaian dasar resonansi RLC
digunakan untuk studi awal dalam penentuan frekuensi resonansi inverter. Hasil yang
diperoleh dari penggunaan rangkaian ini adalah tegangan terminal untuk awal pembangkitan
ozone berhasil dicapai dengan menggunakan frekuensi resonansi.

Kata kunci : elektronika daya, converter beresonansi, pembangkitan ozon


Abstract
Ozone is one of the favorable oxidant to use in home appliance and industry as
disinfectant for food processing, food storage, odor abatement, groundwater remediation, and
drinking water purification. The common and previous technical method for generating ozone
uses a high voltage and low frequency. This kind of method has disadvantage of energy
efficiency, size and weight. This paper proposed the use power electronics in the inverter
resonant circuit to produce alternating current with high frequency. The basic RLC resonance
circuit is used for early study to determine resonance frequency for inverter. As the result, the
ozone chamber terminal voltage had been achieved for initiation by using resonance frequency.

Keywords: inverter, ozone generation, power electronics, resonant converter


1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, ozone is becoming the oxidant of choice for many air and water
applications. Ozone is widely used in industrial and domestic applications as the oxidant
element for bleaching and disinfecting. It is also used in food processing, food storage, odor
abatement, groundwater remediation, and drinking water purification. The application of ozone
is a rapidly growing field in which the improvement in the ozone generation systems is a key
issue. The best industrial method known today to generate ozone is the use of electric
discharges. This technique has been investigated for a long time by many researches [1-4], but
much progress is still to be done to increase the overall efficiency of existing reactors. A first
possibility to increase the efficiency is the use of high frequency converters to supply the
ozonizer, as opposed to the low frequency power supplies used traditionally [5]. High frequency
converters provide lower power losses, lower size and weight and the possibility to control the
amount of ozone generated [5].
The basic configuration of ozone generation is shown in Figure .1. The principle of
operation of ozone generator (OG) consists to apply a high voltage between two parallel
plaques with air inside, the high voltage produces the phenomenon know as silent discharge or
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34
corona effect. The silent discharge produces ultraviolet radiations that break the oxygen
molecule producing ozone. It is important to avoid the arc discharge to maintain the silent
discharge, which is obtained adding a dielectric between the air gap and one of the electrodes
[6-7,10].



Figure.1 The basic configuration of ozone generation


To design the power supply that feeds the ozone generator is necessary to know the model of
the OG. The most used model for designers is shown in Figure 2.



(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2. The most used model of the OG
a. Linier model of ozone generator which consist of capacitor and resistor
b. Linier model of ozone generator which represent capacitance of air gap and dielectric
c. Non linier model of Ozone generator


Figure 2.a. is a linear model of ozone generators. This model represents the OG with
only one resistor and capacitor. way they obtain this linear model is based on power analysis[6].
Figure 2.b. is also a liner model of OG, which take account the the capacitance due to the
dielectric is represented by Cg and the capacitance due to the air gap is represented by Ca.
Figure 2.c. represent non linier model of OG. The DC source with the bridge of diodes
represents the silent discharge, where Vz is the voltage at which the silent discharge is
produced. This is a non linear model, since when the applied voltage across Ca is lower than
Vz, there is not silent discharge and the diodes of the bridge are not conducting. On the other
hand, when voltage applied across Ca is greater than Vz then the silent discharge is presented,
the diodes conduce and the applied voltage is equal to Vz and the effect of Ca disappears.
Therefore, the equivalent model will depend on the applied voltage to Ca. Due to this non linear
characteristic of Fig 2.c model, it is difficult to design the power supply basing on this model. [6]
For low power application the using of half bridge inverter, has been well recognized as
power converter and power supply. Due to his high efficiency and simple circuit this model has
been used in other application such as in electronics ballast lamp [8-9].
In this paper , model 2.a. will be adopted in order to assist the design of power supply to
ozone generator. Model 2.a. will be investigated using Electronics Work Bench, where the basic
principle of RLC resonant circuit and the concept of capacitive load resonant to produce high
voltage are investigated first. After that, the voltage-generated by inverter resonant is described.
HV Electrodes
Dielectric Material
Ground Electrode
TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930

Application of Resonant Converter in Ozone Generator(Mochammad Facta)
35
This paper proposed the used of simple resonant inverter fed the model 2a of ozone
chamber. The result will be investigated for voltage at ozone chamber terminal and the output
current shape of converter before high frequency and high voltage transformer.


2. INVESTIGATING THE CHARACTERISTIC OF OZONE MODEL IN RESONANT CIRCUIT
The output of common inverter is square wave, which convert from DC source to AC.
This energy will be fed into ozone chamber model 2.a, by variation of voltage and frequency.
The simplification model of resonant circuit is depictured in Figure 3.
To obtain high voltage the out put of inverter is fed to high voltage high frequency that is
represented by inductor. The load is the model ozone chamber in Figure. 2.a. By using
assumption that the value of capacitor and resistor model is 4.5pF and 200 k. The measured
value of capacitor and inductor is calculated using AC sweep program analysis using PSPICE to
find the ultimate resonance frequency. The result is pictured in Figure 4.
Based on the result on Figure 4, the resonant frequency will be in the range of 50 kHz
until 125 kHz. The experimental is continued by applying the frequency in the RLC resonance
circuit model. By using electronics workbench it is found the condition where the frequency
applied under resonance frequency (f<f
o
), at resonance frequency (f=f
o
) and above resonance
frequency (f>f
o
). The results of these three conditions are presented in Figure 5.


Cp Rp
Lp
AC
Source


Figure 3. Resonant circuit which represent inverter as ac source, transformer and ozone
chamber




Figure 4. Frequency response for ozone chamber model-2a


The results shown in Figure 5 has given the early information that during resonant
frequency applied to the ozone chamber, the voltage obtained is possible to initiate the glowing
discharge in ozone chamber.
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36

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5. The voltage wave at terminal of ozone chamber model when (a) f>f
o
, (b) f=f
o
,
and (c) f>f
o
.


3. RESONANT INVERTER APPLICATION TO THE OZONE CHAMBER
The resonant inverter circuit is represented in Figure 6. It consist of two HF MOSFET
with their driver, high voltage and high frequency transformer and the ozone chamber. DC
Power supply can be fed by single phase full bridge rectifier.




Figure 6. Configuration of resonant inverter fed ozone chamber


In PSPICE program, the AC line could be rectified by full bridge rectifier which produce
240 Volt DC and fed into MOSFET. The switching of the four MOSFETs are driven
synchronously by square wave signal. The frequency and the duty cycle of the signal can be
adjusted to the resonant frequency of the capacitive ozone tubes and the peak voltage,
respectively. Based on the result in part 2 the inductance of the series compensated inductor is
designed together with the capacitance of the ozone tubes to have resonant frequencies
between about 50 kHz and 125 kHz. The ozone tube behaves as a capacitor in parallel with a
resistance during the discharge [11].
As the result, the output voltage which fed ozone chamber is represent in Figure 7,
where there are three condition for frequency adjusted, under resonance, at resonance and
above resonance frequency. From Figure 7 we can observe that under and above resonance
frequency the voltage which occurs at terminal of ozone chamber is not contain energy enough
to initiate the initial discharge.

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930

Application of Resonant Converter in Ozone Generator(Mochammad Facta)
37

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 7. The different shape in terminal voltage of ozone chamber at (a) f>f
o
, (b) f=f
o
,
and (c) f>f
o
.




Figure 8. The different output current from converter at (a) f>f
o
, (b) f=f
o
, and (c) f>f
o
.


Figure 8 show that the operation under resonance frequency can produce higher current than at
resonance frequency at power converter side.


4. SUMMARY
The resonance inverter application to ozone chamber model has been investigated. The
simplified resonant RLC circuit has given a good practice to determine the operating frequency
to the ozone generation. The use of resonance inverter for power supply to ozone chamber has
been discussed. The best result of resonance inverter of ozone generator will be obtained if the
inverter supplies the electrical voltage in the same frequency of the load or ozone chamber.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This early work has supported by Energy Conversion Department, Electrical Engineering
Faculty, University of Technology Malaysia.


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