SBIR Phase I: Exploration of Plasma Activated Water Systems in the Dairy Industry

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力集中在乳制品卫生设施中等离子活化水带来的可能性。等离子活化水有几个优点：它可重复使用，减少了购买、储存和处置化学品的需要，它不会像化学品那样面临抗菌素耐药性，而且可能是一种更快的消毒剂。除了取代化学消毒剂外，等离子活化水可能被证明足够快，可以对奶牛之间的挤奶单元进行消毒，这应该会减少乳房炎在牛群中的传播，降低农民在药物、增加劳动力和扑杀方面的成本。通过使用等离子活化水作为挤奶系统的一部分，可以自动清洁农场环境中的目标孢子。由此带来的成本、感染率、体力劳动和牛奶质量的提高，可能会给奶制品行业带来革命性的变化。这个SBIR第一阶段项目建议研究一种方法，用等离子活化水取代挤奶机中使用的化学消毒剂。乳制品行业正面临着与挤奶机有关的两大问题：第一，劳动力短缺，第二，乳房炎的威胁无处不在，据估计，这种感染每年给奶制品行业造成10亿美元的损失。这两个问题在挤奶机上显得格外突出，因为目前的挤奶方法需要在挤奶前对奶牛进行人工清洁。该项目的目标是探索等离子活化水是否可以有效地替代乳头浸泡，旨在为现有机器设计一种自清洁挤奶装置，并在挤奶前用爪子清洁奶牛。在第一阶段，重点将是建立一个基本的原型，以检查卫生能力，以及与农场环境的兼容性。未来的研究将包括对动物进行更长期的研究，并跟踪前后的感染率。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project centers on the possibility opened by plasma-activated water in dairy sanitation. Plasma activated water has several advantages: it is reusable and reduces the need to buy, store, and dispose of chemicals, it will not face antimicrobial resistance, unlike chemicals, and could be a faster disinfectant. In addition to replacing chemical disinfectants, plasma activated water could prove to be fast enough to allow for disinfecting the milking unit in-between individual cows, which should reduce the spread of mastitis within a herd, reducing the farmer's costs in terms of medicine, increased labor, and culling. By using plasma activated water as part of a milking system, cleaning could be automated as well as target spores in farm environments. The resulting reduction in costs, infection rate, manual labor & strain, and increase in milk quality, could revolutionize the dairy industry.This SBIR Phase 1 project proposes to research a method whereby plasma activated water replaces chemical disinfectants used in dairy milking machines. The dairy industry is facing two major problems relating to milking machines: first, a manual labor shortage, and secondly an ever-present threat of mastitis, an infection estimated to cost the industry $1B annually. These two problems come to a head at the milking machine, as current methods require cows to be manually cleaned before milking. The goal of this project is to explore whether plasma activated water could be an effective replacement for teat dips, aiming to design a self-cleaning milking attachment for existing machines, and clean the cows with PAW prior to milking. In Phase I, the focus will be on building a basic prototype to check sanitation capabilities, and compatibility with a farm environment. Future research would include a longer-term study of animals and track infection rates before and after.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.