Critical Comparison between the Pulsed Electric Field and Thermal Decontamination Methods of Hospital Wastewater

• Authors: C. Gusbeth , W. Frey , T. Schwartz , A. Rieder
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Filtered wastewater samples were inoculated with Enterococcus faecium and exposed to different pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment energies at 40, 50 and 60°C. A lethal effect of heat treatment on E. faecium can be observed for T > 56°C and a heating duration of 4 min. A treatment with 60°C, 4 min, provokes a bacterial reduction of 4 log. A combined treatment of inoculated wastewater samples with pulsed electric field and heat (40, 50 and 60°C) reduced the bacterial contamination considerably. At a suspension temperature of 60°C pulsed electric field inactivation resulted in a complete bacterial decontamination (8 log reduction rate). Moreover, it was demonstrated that naturally occurring nuclease activities were not changed by the pulsed electric field treatment. In contrast to a thermal treatment with temperature over 72°C, for 4 min., the nuclease activity was reduced up to 90%. In this case, inactivation is only 4 log. The same inactivation rate can be obtained by a combination of heat treatment (60°C) and pulsed electric field treatment (30 J/ml).

Keywords

EN

87.50.cj; 87.14.ej; 92.40.kc

Discipline

• 87.14.ej: Enzymes
• 87.50.cj: Electroporation/membrane effects

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 115
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1092-1094

Dates

published

2009-06

Contributors

author

C. Gusbeth

• Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

author

W. Frey

• Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

author

T. Schwartz

• Institute for Technical Chemistry Water Technology and Geotechnology Division, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

author

A. Rieder

• Institute for Technical Chemistry Water Technology and Geotechnology Division, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

References

• 1. A.J. Castro, G.V. Barbosa-Canovas, B.G. Swanson, J. Food Process. Pres. 17, 47 (1993)
• 2. T. Schwartz, W. Kohnen, B. Jansen, U. Obst, FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 43, 325 (2003)

Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.115.1092