Semi-industrial upgrade and automation of a low-pressure plasma system in a supercavitation bubble for cleaning irrigation water (and beyond)

Project Leader: Assoc. Prof. Dr Gregor Primc (Jozef Stefan Institute)

Slovenian health care was put to the test when the pandemic began in early spring 2020. Although government measures slowed down the spread of the virus, which bought time for reorganizing public health care, the pandemic still claimed too many victims. One of the first measures was the mandatory use of protective masks. Disposable medical masks reliably capture most viruses in exhaled or inhaled air but do not inactivate them.

Our team has developed an innovative technology that combines cold plasma and supercavitation for water decontamination, specifically for virus inactivation. This technology is patented and has shown excellent results in inactivating the MS2 bacteriophage and degrading pharmaceutical compounds. We are now entering the phase of automation and increased flow rates to move towards industrializing the solution.

The project objectives are to build and automate a medium-scale system for treating liquid water with the aforementioned technology. The system will first be validated on the MS2 bacteriophage to determine the configurations and parameters that provide the best inactivation results. The most promising configurations will then be tested on other contaminants, such as bacteria, to ensure broader effectiveness, and on effluent from a wastewater treatment plant with added MS2 bacteriophage to test under additional organic load.

Following successful optimization, the next steps will involve scaling up the device and conducting extensive tests on various pollutants. This progress is essential to bring the technology a step closer to commercialization and widespread use.