Scale-up and Optimisation of Large Area Cold Plasma Systems for Rapid Microbial Decontamination

Atmospheric pressure plasma is an extremely potent antimicrobial agent due to the synergistic production of a wide variety of highly-oxidising chemical species, UV photons, and transient electric fields that are created directly at the point of need. Such plasmas offer a convenient, consumable-free, and environmentally friendly means of efficient and large area microbial decontamination. This contribution will provide an overview of the current state of the art in atmospheric pressure plasma technology for large scale microbial decontamination applications. Of all plasma systems currently under investigation, the Surface Barrier Discharge (SBD) has shown the greatest promise, as it operates in ambient air and can be scaled to cover many meters. Recent efforts at the University of Liverpool to develop a pilot scale plasma device that is suitable for the in-situ decontamination of food and food-processing equipment will be detailed.