Disinfection of urines using an electro-ozonizer

Disinfection of polymicrobial urines by electrochemical oxidation: Removal of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes

“…coli + E. faecalis), CU1 (E. faecalis + K. pneumoniae) and CU3 (K. pneumoniae + E. coli), respectively. Previous studies have investigated the effects of different disinfectant species (based on chlorine or ozone) on the removal of DNA, proving the major capacity of the combination of ozone and chlorine derived species [22]. This fact may explain the differences observed in the DNA reduction between both electrochemical reactors which can be attributed to the distinct disinfectant species involved (Figure 3).…”

“…A Delta Electronika ES030-10 power supply (0-30V, 0-10A) provided the electric current. To sum up, Table 1 shows the main design and operational parameters of both reactors, considering manufacturer's limitations and their most suitable operational conditions for disinfection tested in our previous works [21][22][23]. Thus, it is expected that working at these conditions, the generation of combined chlorine species (chloramines) will be promoted during the electrochemical treatment with the microfluidic flow-through reactor, avoiding the formation of undesirable chlorine compounds in high oxidation state (chlorate and perchlorate) [21,23] and, large amounts of ozone are also expected to be electrogenerated with the MIKROZON ® cell [22].…”

“…Our previous works reported to maximize the generation of ozone during the electrochemical disinfection of synthetic hospital urines at 1 A [22].…”

“…Thereby, the SEM analyses demonstrate that the treatment of complex hospital urines with the MIKROZON ® cell under the operation conditions recommended by the manufacturer has a major capacity than the microfluidic flow-through reactor to cause the cell membrane rupture, resulting in faster killing of ARB and higher both DNA damage and ARGs abatement. This can be directly attributed to the nature and amount of the electrogenerated disinfectants during the treatment since the microfluidic flow-through reactor promotes the generation of chlorine-based species whereas the MIKROZON ® also favors the electrochemical production of large amounts of ozone [22].…”

“…Furthermore, the nature and composition of the disinfectants electrogenerated during the disinfection process were also monitored. A microfluidic flow-through reactor and a commercial MIKROZON ® cell were tested under the most suitable operating conditions previously reported for disinfection purposes with monomicrobial hospital urines [21,22]. The first device mainly promotes the electrochemical production of chlorine-based disinfectants from the electrolysis of chlorides contained in urine matrixes [23] whereas the MIKROZON ® cell is especially designed to produce large amounts of ozone in water with low salinity in addition to chlorine-based disinfectants [22].…”