WO2005079869A1

WO2005079869A1 - Stabilized hydrogen peroxide composition for atomising systems

Info

Publication number: WO2005079869A1
Application number: PCT/NL2004/000134
Authority: WO
Inventors: Louis Rademaekers; Jeroen Visser
Original assignee: Projectadvies Waalhof B.V.
Priority date: 2004-02-23
Filing date: 2004-02-23
Publication date: 2005-09-01

Abstract

Described is an atomising system comprising a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer and a climate control and air-conditioning system comprising such an atomising system. The application of a stable hydrogen peroxide composition in sorbitol in combination with an atomising system provides a powerful method for disinfecting products or spaces and a method for controlling the biological atmosphere in a space. The composition of hydrogen peroxide in water with sorbitol is especially applied in an atomising system to combat bacteria like legionella, and viruses like those which cause for instance the bird disease.

Description

STABILIZED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE COMPOSITION FOR ATOMISING SYSTEMS

The present invention relates to an atomising system a climate control and to an air-conditioning system. The invention further relates to a method for controlling the biological atmosphere in a space and to a method for disinfecting products or spaces. Most offices nowadays are equipped with air conditioning systems. One major disadvantage of air conditioning systems is the accumulation of bacteria and other micro organisms in the system caused by recycling of air, as for instance attacks with Bacillus Anthracis (Anthrax) in 2001 in the USA. These bacteria can cause serious health problems and can give rise to high absentee rates. In the farming industry outbreaks of a bird disease (H5N1 flu) killed millions of chickens and were spreading at an alarming rate. An even more threatening fact is that some people caught the disease from the animals and died. When the virus mutates with a human virus, like influenza, there is a serious chance the disease will get airborne, possibly causing a pandemic among humanity. In order to stop the spreading of this very dangerous disease, enormous amounts of birds had to be slaughtered and poultry farms must be disinfected thoroughly. Outbreaks of diseases like this one occurred in the past and will keep occurring in the future. An important step in confining outbreaks consists of disinfecting. In the case of animal diseases, sties, folds, cowhouses, stables and poultry houses must be disinfected. In the case of human diseases, hospital rooms and even houses might need disinfection. The use of a hydrogen peroxide composition to disinfect or sterilize spaces or products, such as for instance in the food industry and packaging industry and in the field of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, is sufficiently well known and for instance described in European patent application EP 1043273. It is always necessary here to use a stabilizer since a hydrogen peroxide composition deteriorates relatively quickly. Use has traditionally been made of glycerol, silver nitrate and lactic acid as stabilizers. In US patent 5,658,595 the atomising of a composition of hydrogen peroxide and glycerol for the treatment of foodstuffs has been described. However, it is not possible to use such a composition to combat the legionella bacteria. In European patent application EP 855182 besides glycerol also the use of sorbitol and inositol has been mentioned in a composition of hydrogen peroxide. In EP 1043273 it has been described that mannitol in particular, gives reasonably good results, with a small deterioration of a composition of hydrogen peroxide of 0.4% in 14 days only. It has been found however that applying sorbitol as stabilizer makes the composition of hydrogen peroxide in water homogeneous, whereby the hydrogen peroxide composition has particular properties. In particular the hydrogen peroxide composition comprises 10 - 50% by weight of hydrogen peroxide, more in particular 35 - 50% by weight. The great advantage of such concentrated compositions with sorbitol is that after 100 days a deterioration of only about 0.4% occurs, i.e. 99.6% of the initial concentration of hydrogen peroxide is still present in the composition. The object of the present invention is to provide an atomising system which may be used in a climate control and air-conditioning system with improved properties over the prior art. Bacteria cultures where under legionella bacteria and other pathogenic organisms are simply destroyed before they can leave the system and spread through the air to infect people. According to the present invention a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer can advantageously be applied in an atomising system, which system preferably can be used in a climate control and air-conditioning system, whereby the biological atmosphere in a space can be controlled. The atomising system comprising such a hydrogen peroxide composition and the climate control and air- conditioning system comprising such a hydrogen peroxide composition and the atomising system themselves are provided by the present invention. Due to the high stability of such a composition of hydrogen peroxide with sorbitol as stabilizer it is possible to use such a composition much longer than the hydrogen peroxide compositions known in the art. Moreover, this stabilizer is non-toxic. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for disinfecting products or spaces, wherein an atomising system comprising a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer according to the invention is applied, whereby the hydrogen peroxide composition is atomized. The composition can be applied particularly advantageously in the removal of a bio film, present in for instance pipes which remains after the transport of water or aqueous solutions through the pipes in question, or on the inside of a car window, where a bio film layer builds up gradually due to the air circulation. A legionella infection, which is dangerous to humans, is also countered by removing the bio film. Furthermore, a method for controlling the biological atmosphere in a space has been provided wherein the climate control and air-conditioning system comprising the advantageous atomising system comprising a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer has been provided. Implementation of a hydrogen peroxide based disinfecting composition into an existing air conditioning system is for instance accomplished by using a specially designed fog machine, like the Ultrafogger, which can be obtained from Frans Neugen, Bedrijfshygiene BN, Νederweert, the Netherlands. Machines like this produce a fine mist of the hydrogen peroxide mixture in the system. The functioning of these machines is based on a piezo-electrical device, producing ultra-sonic vibrations, which causes the liquid to be "atomized" or sprayed into a fine mist or fog. When accurately placed, near the inlet of the airconditioning system, all the areas in the system will be reached by this mist and therefore disinfected. The advantages of the use of this type of fog machines that they are small light electrical machines (230V, AC - 50Hz) and have a low usage of disinfecting agent 0.5 - 2.0 litre / h for 15 - 180 m³ mist. Because poultry houses and other animal residences usually have much larger volumes than air conditioning systems, a different type of fogging machine is used for this purpose. Depending on the size of the room to be disinfected, fogging machines used, produce a mist volume varying between 15 - 150.000 m³ / h. The largest being a 125 horse power fog machine, of which the functioning is based on the principle of a jet engine and producing a cloud of mist of approximately 120 metres. Because of the wide range in fogging equipment, it is possible to disinfect virtually all types and sizes of poultry houses in a relative inexpensive and easy way. The homogeneous hydrogen peroxide composition applicable for an atomising system and climate and airconditioning system according to the invention further comprises preferably at least one organic acid, for instance hexanoic acid, pentanoic acid, citric acid, lactic acid or glycol acid. An organic acid is particularly important if the composition is used in an environment above room temperature, and particularly in the tropics, and in addition also acts as a fungicide. The stabilizer, and then sorbitol in particular, is preferably present in deficiency in the hydrogen peroxide composition, wherein the weight ratio of hydrogen peroxide and the stabilizer, in particular sorbitol, lies between 5: 1 and 50: 1 , more preferably between 7: 1 and 10: 1. It will be apparent to the skilled person that the inventive concept allows a wide application of the atomising system comprising a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer and of the climate control and air-conditioning system as described here, and is certainly not limited to the examples given in this description.

Claims

1. Atomising system comprising a hydrogen peroxide composition with sorbitol as stabilizer.

2. Climate control and air-conditioning system comprising an atomising system according to claim 1.

3. Method for disinfecting products or spaces, characterized in that an atomising system according to claim 1 is applied, whereby the hydrogen peroxide composition is atomized.

4. Method according to claim 3 characterized in that a bio film is removed during the disinfecting.

5. Method for controlling the biological atmosphere in a space, characterized in that the climate control and air-conditioning system according to claim 2 is applied, whereby the hydrogen peroxide composition is atomized.