First of all a personnal introduction.
PILEOS stands for my mission ie "Permaculture Institute for a Loving & Ethical Operating System".
Pileos is also the name of the cap of mushrooms, as psychedelic mushrooms are what led me on this truth path.
It is also the name of circular clouds characteristic of some storms, which is linked to Amanita Muscaria as Soma, being born of thunder.
Pileos is also the name of the hat that slaves who would be freed of bondage would wear back in Ancient Greece.
I subscribe to McKenna's idea that Culture is an operating system ( a very fundamental teaching that can lead to many insights ) and the idea that the way to fight our current system is not to try to upgrade the present OS but to invent a new one that will make the previous one obsolete.
I was trained as an environmental engineer, I work as a permaculture designer, and I am currently building an off grid tiny house.
I am very much on the beginning of my practical permaculture journey, but I spent years studying and I think I have some knowledge to contribute.
You are welcome to be an informal member of PILEOS (which is an informal organization anyway).
Back to the point :
Ozone. Do you know what it is ? It is a highly instable, very oxidative molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen. You can learn more about it on wikipedia or else. Here are the applications of ozone you should know about that can dramatically increase your freedom.
- Ozone can be used to purify the air and water of organisms like fungi (mold and spores), bacteria and viruses. It can oxidize toxins like pesticides or Formaldehyde. Etc etc... find out more by yourself.
- BEWARE ! Using it as an air purifier can be dangerous, and should only be done in small concentrations where you can barely smell it (it smells like thunder, since it is created naturally by lightning strikes). However in water its half life is very short (~30min) and using O3 dissolved in water has many applications.
- You can use it to make your laundry ! Ozone dissolves best in cold water- Meaning you can do cold "rinse" cycles on your washing machine with ozone. It will removes smells, some stains (although tough ones will need detergent), and generally sterilizes your clothes. Use it as such between 1.5 and 3 ppm (mg/L) for best results. This application is truly amazing, as I am building an off grid tiny house (that should not use propane or other fuels that should be bought outside) and is tiny (so difficulty in the winter to harvest a lot of solar heat for water). Even if you are connected to the grid, ozone will save you money on detergent (probably in my case by a factor of 100) and heat (which is where the washing machine eats much of the power, and you may already know how stupid it is to use electricity to heat), and less water as you don't need to rinse of detergent from the clothes (it also makes washing cleaner). O3 laundry is safer for you and your kids, no risk of allergies, no detergent deposit in your laundry etc etc... You can check ozone laundry manufacturer websites for more details). Personnally I have a twin tub washing machine, which is cheap, with a low energy consumption. I used to be running mine in my now dead van on a 200w inverter. Because it is not automated like more pricy ones, you could just diffuse ozone in the water with an air stone for a few minutes prior to putting your clothes in, instead of having a venturi injector than mixes in O3 in water before the tap. This method is cheaper, and can be used with a variety of laundry systems like the 55 gal barrel rolled on the tire of a bike. Some models run on 12VDC, and the models that provide sufficient O3 will be under 40W of power (not much).
- Ozonated water can also wash dishes, and will work to clean and sterilize your dishes. If you are using a dishwasher, it is best to use a venturi injector in the tap leading to the device with a flow switch to produce O3 as water is flowing. Same benefits as for laundry, notably less heat required. However regarding soiled dishes with oil for example, heat and detergent will probably still be necessary. No need to use ozone for water at 35ºc or above as O3 will no longer be soluble at higher temperatures.
- Ozonated water can be used to clean your floor, and any other surface- Remember to use ozonated water, right after it has been produced to get the highest cleaning effect.
- Ozone is great to purify water tanks and is actually the best solution to decontaminate (even sterilize) it, better than Chlorine or Fluoride as it leaves no chemical residue. It is also better than UV although you may like to have a UV filter in your system anyway.Better yet, ozone will remove Cl- from water (I don't know about F-) along with micropollutants like pesticides, hormones, medication which is present everywhere now, even in your tap. It's no conspiracy, ozone treatment is used in the best water treatment plants in the world, like in Switzerland. Activated charcoal/Carbon is usually used in conjunction as it has similar properties, and can remove some of the decomposition products created by ozone. You can make activated charcoal yourself (check online for recipes using charcoal), or better yet without added products with a gasifier (which would deserve a post for itself). Let's just say that you can create gaseous fuel on demand from biomass, and that the residual products are activated carbon (because the gasifier heats to 800-900ºc) and ashes that can be used as a detergent or in soap making. Heat can also be harvested from the process. LOOK into gasifier and notably Ben Peterson. A personnal note, you can inject syngas into an anaerobic digester which will convert it to methane, which is a much safer and easier gas to work with. PS : activated carbon, and alkaline water that you can make by dissolving ashes in cold water are all you need to purify biogas to biomethane (removing H2S, CO2 and H2O) so that you can use the gas in engines or compress it for storage.
- I would recommend ozonating your greywater especially if you are dumping it in a river rather than on soil, so as not to pollute the wildlfe, You could also thanks to O3 reuse the same water over and over again, as it will remove soaps and impurities. Check the shower loop system and just add ozone to the water tank. This is great for me as my main source of water is rainwater, and my roof is far too small to get enough water for modern life. That is if I don't reuse it.
- I live close to a river and will use it to water my garden. It is rich in nutrients because of stupid agricultural practices, but which is good for my farm, but also in pharmaceuticals, pesticides etc, that I don't want to spray on my organic vegetables. So I will ozonate the water prior to irrigation (and pass it through a charcoal bed to create biochar, which is charcoal with a lot of nutrients in it (and a lot of life) that I will then be able to use as soil amendment.
- You can decontaminate biomass ! I plan on growing mushrooms and having a fermenter for ethanol production. Just put the biomass you plan on using in a tank (like HDPE 55 gal tank), fill it with water and ozonate the hell out of it. It is cheaper than an autoclave, and also doesn't require all the energy needed to heat an autoclave. Also you can use the same tank where you did the sterilization/disinfection step to grow shrooms or ferment. With an autoclave it is more of a hassle, there are more steps, and hence more dangers of contamination.
- Also you can use ozonated water to washes fruits and vegies and remove the surface contaminants like pesticides (but be aware that non-organic produce will contain these contaminants within their flesh, so it won't remove everything). This will help keep your produce fresher longer, you can also use this prior to lacto-fermentation (which is an absolutely awesome method of food preservation which needs nearly no energy and will be super healthy for you) to facilitate the colonisation of lactofermenting bacteria (you can use non washed cabbage as an innoculant for instance).
That's about it for the uses of ozonated water. Now what about air uses ?
- You can inject ozone in you fridge, it will prevent the development of molds and bacteria and you will have your produce fresher longer.
- You can ozonate your pantry for the same purposes. In high concentrations ozone will kill insects and rodents (and so be sure your pets and yourself are away from the pantry when doing this operation). Ozone will also damage and possibly kill plants so don't ozonate your beloved greenies.
- You can create a sterile inflatable glovebox inflated with ozone to inoculate spores into the growing medium, or for other microbiological purposes (personally I like micro-algae cultures, which would also deserve another post). This is a very cheap way to have laboratory like quality to your experiments at home. It could be useful for sensitive electronics like hard-drive repair (because ozone also makes dust fall from the air, so you can get a dustless environment).
That's about it folks ! Some people have done DIY ozonators, I'd recommend buying one. You'll find different qualities out there. A ceramic tube ozonator will last 20000hours, which is probably more than you'll need for your whole life ! Count ~200$/€ for this, but you can find cheaper models, which don't produce as much ozone per hour for 20$
Love to y'all!
