Industrial lubricant removal using an ultrasonically activated water stream, with potential application for Coronavirus decontamination and infection prevention for SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Industrial processes routinely require the removal of lubricant from processed materials. This cleaning can be energy intensive and environmentally costly owing to the temperatures and the solvent load that are used. It is required throughout many industrial processes, notably surface finishing. This paper tests a novel technology that removes the need to heat the water, and reduces the need for additives, through use of a novel nozzle that uses just mains water and electricity to generate an 'Ultrasonically Activated Stream' (UAS). The UAS nozzle passes ultrasound down a stream of unheated water, and tests its ability to remove a variety of lubricants, from stainless steel, with and without the addition of degreaser, comparing it to the ability of the same water supply (when not ultrasonically activated) to remove the lubricant (with and without degreaser). Removal of the need to heat water by use of this UAS nozzle would reduce heating costs and allow areas of a plant or manufacturer that lack access to hot water to have enhanced cleaning. Reduction in the need to use additives reduces costs and is a requirement for surfaces that may be damaged by them. However, the implications extend further. If, in the current COVID-19 crisis, supply chains for solvents are broken, or additives and heating become difficult to access (for example to decontaminate PPE or an ambulance in the field), the ability to remove lubricant without heating (and, if necessary, additives such as detergents) is crucial, since the SARS-CoV-2 virus resides in respiratory secretions that are composed mainly of mucin glycoproteins, surfactant and intercellular fluid.

A proof‐of‐concept study of the removal of early and late phase biofilm from skin wound models using a liquid acoustic stream

“…The fundamentals of the LAWS device have previously been shown to remove bacterial biofilm from hard surfaces. 20 , 27 , 28 , 30 However, soft, biological surfaces offer very different and inconstant acoustic parameters. Variable surface transmission and reflection combined with varying tissue impedance inevitably alter the acoustic environment.…”

“…The details regarding the operation of the LAWS device have been published previously 20 , 26 , 31 and are detailed in Figure 2 . Full details can be found in Supplementary Methods and Materials.…”

“…19 Moreover, the ultrasonic bath cannot “clean in place,” cannot accommodate objects larger than itself, and the act of immersing a target within the bath can degrade the sound field and generate spots of little activity where no cleaning occurs. 20 …”

“…However, the use of inertial cavitation in a cleaning bath is a violent process that may damage tissue and requires the item to be cleaned to be placed in a bath, immersed in a “soup” containing removed contaminants 19 . Moreover, the ultrasonic bath cannot “clean in place,” cannot accommodate objects larger than itself, and the act of immersing a target within the bath can degrade the sound field and generate spots of little activity where no cleaning occurs 20 …”

Improving livestock feed safety and infection prevention: Removal of bacterial contaminants from hay using cold water, bubbles and ultrasound

“…Furthermore, acoustic radiation forces on the bubbles [31] cause them to be attracted into the crevices [14] , [32] , [33] . The effectiveness of the UAS systems has been demonstrated [24] , [34] including the removal of ‘sooty’ particulate contaminants from equipment on railway locomotives [35] ; biofilms associated with marine biofouling [36] and dental bacteria [37] ; lubricant [38] and hazardous infectious biological contamination from surgical steel [39] and from bone being prepared as for transplant [40] .

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