Ozone offers many advantages as a sterilant gas. Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen that can oxidize most organic matter including nearly indestructible prions. While it is necessarily toxic it is also unstable, with a 30 minute half life it quickly reverts to normal oxygen in hours. Ozone reaches negligible levels well before any chemical sterilant can reach safe levels. On the other hand the fact that it is unstable means that it must be produced on site so it has not always been practical. It is used industrially to sterilize water and air, in specialized applications such as medical instruments, to deodorize trucks and transport containers, to disinfect surfaces. Until now ozone has not been used for stored agricultural crops. There have been attempts but with too little ozone there was no guarantee of sterilization, with too much the crop and its storage container were damaged. The EcOzone Sterilization System is the first and only one capable of dealing with all crop infestations efficiently and cost effectively. ![]() |