Grantee Research Project Results

Final Report: Integrated System for Water Disinfection and Bacteria Monitoring

EPA Contract Number: 68HERC20C0025
Title: Integrated System for Water Disinfection and Bacteria Monitoring
Investigators: Sant, Himanshu J
Small Business: Espira Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: March 1, 2020 through August 31, 2020
Project Amount: $100,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (2020) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , SBIR - Clean and Safe Water

Description:

Espira Inc. has developed ElectroPur, a modular point-of-use (POU) drinking water disinfection and pathogen sensing system. The ElectroPur system includes an electrocatalytic titanium-based disinfection reactor that inactivates biological pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and protozoa) through the creation of powerful oxidative radicals and a highly sensitive biological sensor that can detect a range of pathogens including E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and norovirus.  

This project supported further development with a focus on Legionella and mycobacteria disinfection and sensing as part of this EPA funded Phase 1 SBIR project with the following technical objectives:

1.Optimizing the treatment conditions and residence time to ensure Legionella and mycobacteria are eliminated from drinking water

2.Determining and improving the detection capability of the biological sensor for pathogenic Legionella pneumophila and Mycobacterium avium.

3.Scale-up the current ElectroPur design to 100 L/day capacity ready for validation at field sites for testing under real-world conditions

While there are POU water treatment options available (reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light, nanofiltration), our market research has found that these have significant drawbacks, including substantial power requirements, expensive equipment, and consumables. It can waste a significant amount of water. These drawbacks make currently available POU options very challenging to deploy in off-grid communities or low resource settings with limited access to power, funding, and water. The ElectroPur system overcomes these limitations and is ideal for modular-scale water systems, particularly those that rely on ground or surface water, in off-grid communities, low resource settings, or in emergencies.  Additionally, this system allows for non-culture based rapid sensing of multiple pathogens using a field-deployable system that is part of the ElectroPur system that combines pathogen disinfection and monitoring. 

Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):

1.       A scalable design that allows us to increase the throughput of the electrocatalytic bioreactor (ElectroPur) using stainless steel as a cathode and titania coil with nanotube as anode

2.      Ability to disinfect L. pneumophila in drinking water with a 6-log reduction with less than 10-minute treatment time

3.      Ability to disinfect M. avium in drinking water with a 4-log reduction with less than 10-minute treatment time

4.      Ability to detect L. pneumophila with a limit of detection of 100 cfu/500 µl or about 1 CFU in 100 ml in less than 90 minutes without any culture or amplification step

5.      Ability to detect M. avium with a limit of detection of 5000 cfu/500 µl or about 25 CFU in 100 ml in less than 90 minutes without any culture or amplification step

Conclusions:

Several questions were posed for the Phase I research plan and answered during this project to determine the feasibility of this approach for a sampling system. Key findings verifying several key hypotheses as determined throughout this program are provided here.

Hypothesis 1: The oxidizing disinfection device will be capable of destroying additional bacteria: Legionella and mycobacteria in different water matrices or multiple water sources such as drinking water and process water

Finding 1: We were able to disinfect both L. pneumophila and M. avium species within 10 minutes using low power electrocatalytic bioreactor

Hypothesis 2: Sensor will have a limit of detection of 1 CFU for 100 mL water containing bacteria from a variety of source water

Finding 2: We were able to detect L. pneumophila at 1 cfu/100 ml detection level, whereas the current minimum detection limit of M. avium is at 25 cfu/100 ml.  Work is underway to improve the M. Avium detection limit further.

Hypothesis 3: A laboratory-scale (100 L/day) system can continuously disinfect and sense 1000 L of water containing bacteria from a variety of source water

Finding 3: We have fabricated a scalable ElectroPur system capable of 100 L/day processing, and characterization for 1000 L of water is underway. 

We have filed multiple disclosures and working on a provisional patent in collaboration with the University of Utah Technology Commercialization and Venture Offices.  We are working with industry partners and entrepreneurs to form strategic partnerships and commence fundraising activities for this project.