Ozon as service

Status

completed

Summary

Initial situation

Oxy3 has been developing and producing electrochemical equipment for the production of ozone for many years. This equipment is constructed in a simple way, easy to operate, and ozone is quickly available. This development allows the production of ozone without high-tech equipment and its service orientation offers the possibility to provide ozone to a higher number of customers.

Content and aims

The main aims of the project "service ozone as a special gas" are based on economical and ecological analysis by offering ozone as a service, which has not been available up to now under the same conditions. The main target is to create a business plan including structured data of institutions and potential customers of this service. Marketing analysis, ecological and logistical considerations, legal formalities and a general consideration of competitors are included as well. Another very important aspect checks available distribution networks and conditions for a possible cooperation.

Methodology

The methodology of data collection used in this project consists of internet usage combined with data collection in different university libraries. The customer's interest in a "service ozone as a special gas" was partly questioned by telephone, potential customers or users of the service ozone were also qualitatively questioned.

The methodology of the development of the service was based on a development of different variants of the service. On the one hand the feasibility of the service was investigated on the other hand economical aspects were evaluated as well. For the reason that costs could only be roughly estimated, the project team used the method of absorption costing.

Results

In a first step already known application areas in usage of ozone were ascertained. Ozone is used in many laboratories, for example as an oxidizer or for the synthesis of scents. It is state of the art to use ozone in different technical processes (bleaching, medicines, preparation of drinking water, etc.). Ozone, which is a strong oxidant, has been compared to selected oxidants used in laboratories. The analyzed parameters (reaction time, reaction not bonded by phases, eco-friendly after a process) have given ozone an exceptionally good result.

First marketing analyses have given us a general view about the marketing situation in Austria and Germany. Potential customers have been defined and in a second step have been classified in end-customers and commercial enterprises and have been associated to their branch. Supported by questionnaires and inquiries by telephone the interest in "service of ozone as a special gas" has also been questioned.

Another important step for the characterization of the potential of "service ozone" was the investigations of scientific papers dealing with the conception "service". Some of these investigations brought up a number of advantages of "service ozone". Ozone is a much more efficient oxidant than other chemicals, on the other hand the service has economical advantages over the investment in conventional ozone generators.

Ozone is a very strong chemical, its chemical attributes irritate mucous membranes, it is an environmental toxin, toxic for human beings and it kills people, when it is inhaled. This matter of fact made it necessary to investigate the ecological conditions of ozone.

The screening of legal conditions gave us an overview of producer's responsibilities, the obligation of information about special hazards. The legal survey discussed questions about delivery conditions, safety aspects, and many more.

Furthermore, logistic aspects have already been worked out, focusing on the following aspects:

• delivery conditions
• questions about distribution
• cooperation and existing networks
• possible cooperating strategies

Based on the findings of our first marketing analysis the investigations were resumed by empirical analysis. In a first step the empirical studies were not as successful as expected. For this reason the team decided to get more information by an additional qualitative analysis. Selected target groups were questioned about their opinion concerning the use of service ozone.

These results brought up further information about the market situation and it also built a reasonable basis for the development of the service and the business plan. Further intensive questioning of potential customers facilitated the estimation of the amounts of ozone gas needed when provided as a service.

Based on this information different variants of the service could be developed. These variants contained detailed results of possible cooperation strategies and SWOT analysis.

The general description of the variants and their validation includes detailed information about an overall concept, including the whole economical periphery. The additional economical evaluation brought up a favorite variant. This favorite variant was used for an economical evaluation, where the costs of the whole service were estimated. Based on these estimations a business plan was created, which can be seen as a structural paper and as a controlling instrument for the practical implementation of the idea to offer an innovative service.

Project management

Mag. Andreas Egger, OXY3

Project or cooperation partner

• Ao. Univ. Prof. DI. Dr. Stefan Vorbach, Dr. Ulrike Gelbmann
  Institut für Innovations- und Umweltmanagement, KF-Uni Graz
• Ing. Mag. Robert Hermann
  Ausseninstitut, Montanuniversität Leoben

Mag. Andreas Egger
OXY3
Peter - Tunnerstraße 19, 8700 LEOBEN
Tel.: +43 (3332) 61991
Fax: +43 (3332) 61991
E-Mail: andreas.egger@oxy3.at