Experimental analyses of an Atmospheric Pressure Electrical Plasma decontaminator

by Pradeep, Eric Pius.

Electrical Gas Plasmas have been widely utilized in the frontiers of sterilization and disinfection of hazardous chemicals and unsafe microorganisms. In this research Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma has been employed using various working gases such as air, helium and nitrogen to study its decontamination effects. Focus is given to analyze the constituents of the plasma such as UV light, charged particles, and chemical components produced during the operation of the discharge which influences the incapacitation of the exposed entities, in this specific study, only bacteria and bacteriophages were exposed. Biological tests involved the cultivation of bacteria and bacteriophages on Petri dishes and their corresponding viability analysis after exposure to the plasma discharge, which was performed in an effort to realize the effectiveness of the treatment using the sterilizer. The results from the experiments were very encouraging in terms of debilitation, energy consumption and time requirements offering a comprehensive explanation of the efficiency of the sterilizer and its potential applications in various areas which includes military, medicine, post offices, hand sanitizers, recycling of hazardous wastes and many more. Use of Hydrogen Peroxide as a moistening agent in the discharge instead of water has yielded some astonishing results concerning the death rate of the microorganisms. Most importantly its prospect of being developed into a large scale medical sterilizer are reasonably high due to the fact that it does not need intricate operating regimes and therefore installing and operating the sterilizer will not require medical or engineering proficiency. v