Disinfection of water and pumpable food with electroporation method

Electroporation is a relatively new addition to the more traditional methods in disinfection of liquids. In this method, high intensity electric field that commonly is in the range of 10-40 kV/cm is applied to a volume of a liquid. This field is created by applying high voltage pulses to a pair of electrodes that are in contact with the liquid. The application of electric field to biological cells creats micropores in the cell membrane and leads to loss of cell viabiliy when critical value of electric field and field duration are exceeded. Electric field amplitude and distribution, field duration, type of microorganisms, shape of pulses and properties of liquid affect the inactivation efficiency of electroporation. This method can be used in pumpable food preservation, disinfection of drinking water and wastewater, biofouling prevention and extraction applications.