Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Development of a continuous water production system activated with plasma for disinfection of agricultural products

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
mohammad javad aarabi 1
sajad rostami 1
bahram hosainzadeh 1
firozeh nazari 2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystem
2 Vice President of Food and Drug, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jrmam.2025.14480.671
Abstract
Disinfection of agricultural products as one of the main stages of processing agricultural products has been a very important issue in recent years. One of the new methods of disinfection with high efficiency and low operating costs and at the same time with minimal side effects is using liquid treated with plasma. Plasma-activated water (PAW) and its disinfecting effect on crops have previously been evaluated in a defined volume and for a predetermined amount of time in previous systems. In the current work the physical properties of continuously producing activated water with plasma were studied. The effect of different water sources including tap water (TW), distilled water (DiW), and deionized water (DeW), different water flow rates (0.5, 1, and 2 ml/min), and different sources of gases including air (Ai) and argon (Ar) as a cold-plasma micro jet was studied on physical properties of water at different times. As a result of plasma treatment, the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), electrical conductivity (EC) significantly elevated while pH showed a significant reduction. There was a significant and positive correlation between ORP and EC, on the contrary pH had a significant and negative correlation with ORP and EC. Our findings showed that deionized water, argon gas, and 0.5 ml ml/min water flow rate are the best combination to produce PAW.
Keywords
Plasma activated water
PH
Electrical cunductivity (EC)
Oxidation Reduction potential (ORP)

Subjects