An Economic Hypochlorous Acid Maker for Covid-19 Control

Abstract

It has been shown that HOCl can inactive numerous viruses, including Corona-19 Viruses in less than one minute. HOCl inactivates viruses, bacteria, endospore and fungi whilst being safe for human tissues with a 99.999% elimination rate. HOCl is listed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s List for Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). It can be used conveniently as hand sanitizer, surface cleanser, food washing solution, fogging solution for school classrooms, buses, shops, restaurants, hotels, offices, theaters, airports, trains, gyms, etc. It is a green, safe, environmentally friendly and fully biodegradable liquid which acts as a very powerful antimicrobial and sterilizing solution.Most consumers purchase pre-made HOCl products produced in a large manufacture site. The pre-made HOCl hypochlorous acid products in the market are very expansive, mostly due to high cost for packaging, transportation, distribution, storage, and in-stability of the product, which normally has a lifetime of 6 -12 months. The capacity of current on-site HOCl generation products is either too big, or too small, only economical for large quantity consumers or single household uses. Due to the Corvid-19 pandemic, there is a strong need for a safe, on-site, on-demand medium-sized HOCl generation product, which uses only non-hazardous household chemicals and has a production capacity of about 10 gallons per day. Here we report our recent development of a compact and low cost HOCl on-site generator for daily disinfection applications against Corvid-19 virus. Compared to other products on the market, which normally use >2 g/L NaCl solutions, our device uses only 0.4 g/L NaCl solution. This is highly desired for environment fogging disinfection applications. Other advantages of our device include: 1) no noticeable Cl2 gas generation during HOCl production; 2) tap water can be used directly without softening treatment; 3) produce very stable products, with 90% HOCl Stability: > 100 days. Figure 1