Plasmalyse – A Plasma Sterilization Prototype

Reactors for medical instruments sterilization was studied by starting from a 5 litres to a 17 litres volumes for dental applications. A first challenge was to find low cost elements to obtain a prize in the same order than a commercial autoclave. For that a microwave source from a commercial microwave oven and the small vacuum pump of the autoclave was tested to built up a new plasma sterilizator, named Plasmalyse. A sterilization of 6Log (10-6 spores survivors) was obtained after a treatment of 7 minutes at 100°C and 120 minutes at 30°C in comparison to 40 minutes at 105°C with the commercial autoclave. After that, Plasmalyse was transformed for the Hospital application, with a 135 litres reactor, connected to 4 microwave sources and with an efficient vacuum pump, to obtain a 6 Log spores inactivation at 60°C in a treatment time of 20 minutes. Moreover, the N-atom transmission and E-coli inactivation through hollow tubes were studied.