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TU Nuremberg investigations
A scientific investigation carried out by the Nuremberg TH Georg-Simon-Ohm shows how microorganisms and biofilms are significantly minimized in a short time by the AQUAENERGY technology.
Within only 5 days the germs are significantly reduced when using the AQUAENERGY technology, however they continuously increase without treatment.
Green curve: without treatment the number of germs increases continuously
Blue curve: with the use of the AQUAENERGY technology the germs are treated immediately and minimized.
With AQUAENERGY the germs are significantly reduced within 5 days.
Excerpt of the examination
According to the recommendation of the DSMZ, the organisms Escherichia coli, Serratia fonticola and Raontella terrigena were used.
The organisms were stored refrigerated on solid agar plates and pre-cultured in liquid media for the experiments. Two identical circuits were set up for the experiments, with one circuit serving the experiment and the other serving as a control. A defined bacterial suspension was placed in a container (laboratory reactor, 5L) and pumped through an AQUAENERGY AQ-KSEM module and treated.
The suspension was then returned to the container. To balance the energy input of the pumps, as well as the AQ-KSEM module, a cooling circuit was additionally installed. The temperature of the suspension was kept constant at 25 °C during the course of the experiment.
Liquid samples were taken from the suspension at the start of the experiment and after 24, 48 and 120 hours of operation. An evaluation was then performed both microscopically and by applying the (diluted) suspension to nutrient agar plates with subsequent incubation for 24 h. The samples were taken from the suspension at the start of the experiment and after each 24-, 48- and 120-h run. Germs grown on the plates were counted and calculated according to statistical parameters.
Result
Germ reduction of 99.88%.
Visual inspection of the plants revealed that the inside of the connecting tubes of the untreated control group was slightly roughened, which also caused turbidity of the material.
This behavior suggests fouling by microorganisms and an attack with secondary metabolites on the hoses. This form of microbial attack was not observed in the test plant.
The hoses of this plant show hardly any to no traces of germs. It must therefore be assumed that the AQ-KSEM module inhibits or almost completely inhibits the multiplication of microorganisms or at least the formation of biofilms.
The evaluation of the microbial count analysis confirmed that the number of reproducible germs in the treated system decreased sharply, whereas the microbial counts of the untreated control group increased. For example, in the tests with E. coli (see diagram above), after a treatment period (exposure time) of 120 hours, only 0.12% of the germ counts originally present could be detected, corresponding to a germ reduction of 99.88%. The germ counts of the control group increased by a factor of 5.59 during this time.
Similar results were obtained by analyzing the bacterial counts of S. fonticola. Here, too, the bacterial count of the treated test group decreased drastically after a test period of 120 hours.
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