A hygienic fog
A new decontamination shower system has been developed by cleanroom component manufacturer PBSC.
The company’s ultrasonic fogging system is based upon the its decontamination shower, which, whilst it is effective, uses a lot of water.
By creating a fogging system in conjunction with a soft spray, PBSC says it has managed to reduce water consumption whilst maintaining effective levels of decontamination, with economic and environmental implications for end-users.
Decontamination fluids, cleansing liquids and sterilisation agents can be injected at controlled ratios within the fogging device to enable the fog to quickly saturate the operative's air-suit. The water then forms droplets and rolls off to be collected for contained disposal.
The chemicals used can also include wetting agents, surfactants and sanitizers, but this will depend upon the process and the facility within which the fogging shower is installed, PBSC says.
Because the fogging performs more than 90% of the decontamination process, the amount of contaminated water collected for controlled disposal is kept to an absolute minimum.
For example, water usage in a conventional pressure spray is approximately 250 litres per minute; with a soft spray this can be reduced to roughly 40 litres per minute, plus 2 litres per minute for the misting process.
The fogging process is then followed with cold or hot water soft sprays from multiple nozzles injected with cleaning agents or sanitizers as required.