Obot uses ozone gas to kill micro-organisms that lead to biofouling. This is significantly applicable to the marine industry which suffers in billions of dollars of loss each year due to biofouling.
Ozone gas has the incredible ability to kill cells through a reaction process called oxidative burst, which destroys the cell wall of an organism, causing it to die. However, ozone has few environmental impacts as it doesn't leach harmful chemicals and is non residual. Its ability to kill organisms can be seen as an environmental impact, but in this context it is being used to help prevent the transportation of non-indigenous species into new ecosystems, which can be significantly more damaging.
In many situations, to prevent biofouling, people choose to use chemicals to kill off fouling organisms. Ozone however, does not contain chemicals as it is a single molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms. The gas is: 25 times more effective than Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl), 2, 500 times more effective than Hypochlorite (OCl) and 5, 000 times more effective than Chloramine (NH2Cl). Using these and other similar chemicals to prevent biofouling, presents the risk of harmful chemicals leaching into the marine environment, causing harm to other organisms that are not being targeted.
Using ozone underwater, it may be suspected that the ozone will disperse into the surrounding water and kill other organisms that way. However, ozone is not residual, meaning once it comes into contact with something such as a bacterium cell, it typically breaks down very quickly. This means that Obot has a small "blast radius" because of the short life span of ozone.
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