Green Cleaning: How Activated Water Products Work

There is considerable confusion about how the current generation of activated water cleaning products - both hand-held sprayers and autoscrubbers - work. While most conventional products clean and sanitize based on chemistry or chemical-reactions, the newer solid-state activated water sprayers and scrubbers work mainly on principles of physics and electrical engineering. Contrary to popular perception, the process is not solely or mainly based on typical electrolysis.
 
How Activated Water Cleans
The technology does use electrolysis, causing almost imperceptible pH and other changes in water chemistry, but these barely measurable effects are not the "active ingredient" used to clean.  Water electrolysis is actually applied to create "charged" nano-sized gas bubbles or "nanobubbles" in water. These electrically-charged bubbles attach themselves to dirt particles causing the particles in turn to become charged and repel from surfaces, enabling soils to be suspended in water and wiped away. Soil removal performance tests conducted by the University of Massachusetts TURI Lab show that it works effectively on most common soils.
 
How Activated Water Kills Germs or Sanitizes
The main "ingredient" behind the germ-killing effect of modern activated water devices is electroporation, a scientific process that applies a low-level electrical field to bacteria or viruses. This electric charge creates holes in the membrane of the cell, known as "porating" the cell wall and thus breaks down the walls of bacterial cells, pathogenic viruses and other germs killing them. This electrical porating activity - i.e., punching holes in germs - only occurs when the unit is activated and sending the electrical charge through the water, which acts as a conductor. With a hand-held device, this entails spraying the surface constantly for six seconds to sanitize it. EPA-compliant Good Laboratory Protocol (GLP) tests show that it works and is an effective broad-spectrum sanitizer.
 
Until recently, this level of innovation in a hand-held device could not be achieved; but with advances in electrical engineering, software and solid state circuitry, it can now be done.  So, there you have it: "activated water" demystified!

By Robert W. Powitz Ph.D., M.P.H, R.S., D.L.A.A.S.