Monitoring the microbicidal effectiveness of gaseous hydrogen peroxide in sterilisation processes by means of a calorimetric gas sensor

  • In the present work, a novel method for monitoring sterilisation processes with gaseous H2O2 in combination with heat activation by means of a specially designed calorimetric gas sensor was evaluated. Therefore, the sterilisation process was extensively studied by using test specimens inoculated with Bacillus atrophaeus spores in order to identify the most influencing process factors on its microbicidal effectiveness. Besides the contact time of the test specimens with gaseous H2O2 varied between 0.2 and 0.5 s, the present H2O2 concentration in a range from 0 to 8% v/v (volume percent) had a strong influence on the microbicidal effectiveness, whereas the change of the vaporiser temperature, gas flow and humidity were almost negligible. Furthermore, a calorimetric H2O2 gas sensor was characterised in the sterilisation process with gaseous H2O2 in a wide range of parameter settings, wherein the measurement signal has shown a linear response against the H2O2 concentration with a sensitivity of 4.75 °C/(% v/v). In a final step, a correlation model by matching the measurement signal of the gas sensor with the microbial inactivation kinetics was established that demonstrates its suitability as an efficient method for validating the microbicidal effectiveness of sterilisation processes with gaseous H2O2.

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Metadaten
Author:Patrick Kirchner, Jan OberländerORCiD, Henri-Pierre Suco, Gunnar Rysstad, Michael Josef SchöningORCiD
ISSN:0956-7135
Parent Title (German):Food control
Publisher:Elsevier
Place of publication:Amsterdam
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2013
Date of first Publication:2012/12/13
Date of the Publication (Server):2013/01/21
Tag:Bacillus atrophaeus
calorimetric gas sensor; hydrogen peroxide; sterilisation
Volume:31
Issue:2
First Page:530
Last Page:538
Link:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.11.048
Zugriffsart:campus
Institutes:FH Aachen / Fachbereich Medizintechnik und Technomathematik
FH Aachen / INB - Institut für Nano- und Biotechnologien
collections:Verlag / Elsevier