Disinfectant on demand

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Covid19 crisis has increased significantly the need for organisations to provide deep cleaning of premises and surfaces to minimise the potential spread of the virus. This has led to shortages of suitable disinfectants, in medical establishments and public/private organisations, increasing the potential spread of this virus. Arvia believe that their existing electrochemical water treatment technology could be re-purposed for the production of a suitable disinfectant when required. This would be produced from a solution containing common salt, producing disinfectant at the required strength for destroying the Covid19 virus.Arvia have an electrochemical product that is used in the water industry to oxidise organic compounds in water. Instead of treating wastewaters, a brine solution is electrochemically oxidised to produce a sodium hypochlorite disinfectant. Using just electricity and sodium chloride it would be possible to produce this disinfectant on demand. This is significant in the current crisis as there have been shortages of disinfectants.The key output of this project will be the production of a prototype unit to prove the concept of "on-demand" disinfectant production. Whilst a simple "on-demand" system is proposed to meet the immediate needs of the Covid19 crisis, a range of future products could be produced from the research undertaken.A potential further vector of transmission of the Coronaviruses is via effluents treated in sewage works. Andrew Singer (Senior Scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) has noted that Coronaviruses have been recovered in faeces and have been shown to be infectious" and it is believed that they can survive is sewage for weeks, passing through existing sewage treatment plants. As the number of infectious people grow, the potential of this vector could grow. This research will allow Arvia to continue development of a process for the disinfection of treated sewage effluent.