Biocide efficacy testing

Do you ever wonder if your cleaning protocol is doing what it is supposed to?

In the fight against microbiologically-influenced corrosion (MIC), biocides in combination with mechanical cleaning are often an important weapon. However, we regularly see that despite these efforts, corrosion problems continue to occur.

What are biocides?

Biocides are chemicals that are used to suppress, combat or prevent harmful or unwanted organisms. Biocides are used in many different places in the industry to monitor safety and quality. For example, in the production process of packaging material such as cardboard from recycled paper. During the manufacturing process, production water is reused several times to save energy. This can only be done safely when it is disinfected with biocides. Another example is the danger of legionella contamination in wet cooling towers. To prevent this, the use of biocides is an essential part of a legionella control plan.

In practice, our customers are confronted with unexpected problems such as slime (mucus) or biofilm formation, leakage or blockages caused by unwanted microbial growth, despite the use of biocides. In those cases, the biocides clearly did not do what they were supposed to do. But what is the exact cause of this problem? To determine this, we have developed a method to test the effectiveness of biocides specifically for your situation.

What influences the efficacy of biocidal products?

The efficacy of each biocide placed on the market is tested in a standardised manner in test set-ups. In practice, users may be faced with factors that are not included in the standardised trial design, but which do influence the effect of a biocidal product treatment. Each industrial process has its own process-specific parameters that can influence the effectiveness. Think of variations in: microbial population, temperature, residence times in the system, biocide concentrations to be achieved, etc. The choice of a suitable biocide and the way it is dosed is tailor-made. If you want to be sure of the desired result, the influence of all these parameters must be carefully considered.

How do we test biocides for your production process?

We test the effectiveness of biocides by mimicking the specific conditions of your production process. Subsequently we examine the effect of different biocide concentrations on microbial activity. We often test several biocides at different concentrations, so that we gain insight into which biocide is most suitable, which concentration should be applied and which application time gives the best results.

How can you use the results of a biocides effectiveness test?

The final result of the test is a clear and practical procedure for the most effective biocide treatment of your production process.

In addition to providing more certainty about the safety and quality of the production process, this procedure also provides you with a considerable financial benefit in many cases.

A practical and effective solution

We have developed a practical and effective solution. We simulate the specific conditions of your process in our laboratory and study how different concentrations of biocides, selected in consultation with you, affect microbial activity. This allows us to test the effectiveness of the biocides. For our customers, we often run tests with different biocides, contact times and concentrations.

This allows us to determine which biocide is most suitable, what concentration to use and what contact time will give the best results. Together we make sure that your cleaning protocol really works".