Experimental characterization of the parameters of grain's magnetic disinfection

Abstract

The limitations of agricultural materials’ chemical disinfection related with making of the parasitical microorganisms resistance and ecological unsafety are briefly presented in the article. The new method of seed and grain disinfection is suggested; it doesn’t need to use chemical pest-killers and it is based on the influence of magnetic alternating field. It is noted that the most probable hypothesis of the not-chemical microorganisms’ neutralization is the change of moisture biological properties under the action of electromagnetic fields; that disrupts transmembrane transport in the cells and leads to their death. A special device – electromagnit – was worked out and the laboratory facility of an assembly line was made for carrying out the experiment. The two-factor experiment was carried out at magnetic field frequency and magnetic induction variations and at the definition of the output function according to the index of infection rate percentage of the material by fungous and bacterial infections. Statistical data manipulation let us to get the infection rate diagrams and to determine the area of the rational parameters: for the wheat grains disinfection magnetic field frequency is 20Hz, magnetic induction is 100 mT; for the food grain – 50Hz and 150 mT correspondingly. The disinfectant effect is 25% for the first case and 28% for the second case at the less germinating capacity. In the conclusion we showed the advantages of this technology in comparison with UHF and other methods, such as energy saving, equal disinfection of the whole material, the compactness and low cost of the equipment, absence of harmful emissions and radiation.