Cold plasma sanitation for a dispensing machine

1. A method comprising:

opening a first valve located at an outlet of a beverage concentrate supply of a beverage dispensing system to send the beverage concentrate to a mixer;

mixing the beverage concentrate with water in the mixer when a combination of a dispensing system and a sanitizing system is in a beverage dispensing mode;

closing the first valve;

providing an air flow through a discharge cell of the sanitizing system, the discharge cell comprising a discharge chamber and discharge electrodes;

initiating in the discharge cell a cold plasma discharge in the air flow using the discharge electrodes;

after initiating the cold plasma discharge in the air flow, exposing water to the air flow for time sufficient to provide dissolution of ozone and other ions and chemical radicals from the air flow into the water and forming ozone-containing water;

sending the ozone-containing water from the sanitizing system to an interior surface of at least one component of the beverage dispensing system to sanitize the interior surface of the at least one component;

wherein the exposing of the water to the air flow from the discharge chamber occurs in a tank of the sanitizing system for a time sufficient to provide dissolution of ozone from the air flow into the water and forming the ozone-containing water;

opening a second valve, the second valve located at an outlet of the sanitizing system;

wherein the beverage dispensing system in combination with the sanitizing system is switched from a dispensing mode to a sanitizing mode when the first valve is closed and the second valve is opened.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one component is selected from the group consisting of a pipe, a mixer, a chamber, a reservoir, a pump, a third valve, and a nozzle.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the ozone-containing water to the tank of the sanitizing system after the ozone-containing water has made at least one pass across the interior surface of the at least one component.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising draining the ozone-containing water.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the ozone-containing water across the interior surface of the at least one component until the interior surface of the component has been sanitized.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising receiving remaining ozone in the air that is not absorbed by water in the tank and decomposing the remaining ozone into diatomic oxygen.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein decomposing the remaining ozone comprises catalytically converting the ozone into diatomic oxygen.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the catalytically converting is performed in a catalytic converter.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the catalytic converter is a thermos-catalytic converter.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing ozone from the ozone-containing water to generate ozone-free water, and supplying the ozone-free water across the interior surface of the at least one component to purge ozone-containing water from the dispensing system.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving ozone-containing water from the sanitizing system and removing the ozone from the ozone-containing water to generate ozone-free water, and mixing a beverage concentrate with the ozone-free water when the combination of the beverage dispensing system and the sanitizing system is in the dispensing mode.

12. A method for sanitizing a beverage dispenser, comprising:

initiating a sanitizing mode for the beverage dispenser;

providing an air flow through a discharge cell of a sanitizing system, the discharge cell comprising a discharge chamber and discharge electrodes;

initiating in the discharge cell a cold plasma discharge in the air flow using the discharge electrodes;

after initiating the cold plasma discharge in the air flow, exposing water to the air flow in a sanitizing system tank for time sufficient to provide dissolution of ozone and other ions and chemical radicals from the air flow into the water and forming ozone-containing water;

sending the ozone-containing water from the sanitizing system to an interior surface of at least one component of a beverage dispensing system to sanitize the interior surface of the at least one component;

initiating a beverage dispensing mode;

receiving the ozone-containing water from the sanitizing system;

removing the ozone from the ozone-containing water to generate ozone-free water;

mixing a beverage concentrate with the ozone-free water to form a beverage; and

dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the at least one component is selected from the group consisting of a pipe, a mixer, a chamber, a reservoir, a pump, a valve, and a nozzle.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising sending the ozone-containing water to the tank of the sanitizing system after the ozone-containing water has made at least one pass across the interior surface of the at least one component.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising draining the ozone-containing water.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

supplying the ozone-free water across the interior surface of the at least one component to purge ozone-containing water from the dispensing system.