ELECTRODISINFECTION OF WATER AND BIOFLUIDES: REVIEW AND EXPERIENCES

The application of AC and DC current on viability of microorganisms mainly bacteria and yeast has been systematically investigated since 1960s. There is little known on the effects of high pules electric field (HPE) on inactivation of bacterial spores, Cryptosporidium oocysts and viruses. The majority of literature deals with DC decay pulses rather than pure AC. Effects of electric field strength, pulse width, pulse numbers, treatment time or total pulse exposure, conductivity, temperature and resulted chemical species were relatively explored in batch wise experiments often with a very low volume of suspension. Literature agrees on the electroporation effect as the main cause in death of tested microorganisms although it seems that the final death of microorganisms under high voltage electric field pulses (HVP) is resulted from a mix of physical and chemical effects. In AC domain only very low frequencies and low voltages have been tested and the effects of HVP on killing of microorganisms still unexplored.This project aims to investigate HVP on disinfection of biofluids mainly water and wastewater. Our preliminary data show a strong effect on inactivation of SW8 bacteria.