His­to­ry of Elec­tro-Chemi­cally Acti­vated (ECA) Solu­tions

History and Use of ECA Water Solutions

The an­ti­mi­cro­bi­al ef­fi­ciency of this anolyte solu­tion is based on the in­ter­ac­tion of the ox­id­at­ive ions, the high ORP (> 1100 mV) and the low pH. Hence, they are su­per­i­or to com­mon chem­ic­al dis­in­fect­ants. Stud­ies have shown that ECA solu­tions kill 99.99% of all germs, and they are 120 times more ef­fi­cient than com­mon so­di­um hy­po­chlor­ite (chlor­ine bleach). Due to its non-se­lect­ive an­ti­mi­cro­bi­al activ­ity, it does not pro­mote res­ist­ances, which is an is­sue.

Soon after their dis­cov­ery in Rus­sia, ECA solu­tions were used for the treat­ment of drink­ing wa­ter in their na­tion­al space pro­gram and in hos­pit­als for dis­in­fect­ing pur­poses. In the 1980s, they be­came pop­u­lar in Ja­pan, as well. There, they were first used to ster­il­ize med­ic­al in­stru­ments; this was fol­lowed by other ap­plic­a­tions in the agricultural industry and live­stock industry. Today, due to the de­vel­op­ment of new high-per­form­ance ma­ter­i­als for elec­tro­lys­is sys­tems, the in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tion of ECA solu­tions has be­come an es­tab­lished eco-friendly and user-friendly tech­no­logy in many dif­fer­ent fields all over the world. Ex­amples of their ap­plic­a­tion are par­tic­u­larly their use in wa­ter treat­ment, in the food in­dustry, bever­age in­dustry, live­stock industry, etc. In the US and Canada, ECA solu­tions are ap­proved for the use in food pre­par­a­tion pro­cesses that in­volve dir­ect and in­dir­ect con­tact with food. Even fresh-cut foods like salads, fruits, and ve­get­ables may be dis­in­fec­ted without re­quir­ing a sub­sequent rins­ing. In the US, ECA solu­tions are also ap­proved as dis­in­fect­ant in bio­lo­gic­al plant cul­tiv­a­tion. ECA solu­tions are also used in hos­pit­als and nurs­ing homes for dis­in­fec­tion of the surfaces. There are also many pos­sible fields of ap­plic­a­tion in veter­in­ary medi­cine, as well. Fur­ther­more, ECA solu­tions are used for com­bat­ing le­gion­ella and to pre­vent biofilms in wa­ter sys­tems.

Count­less sci­entif­ic stud­ies evid­enced the ex­cep­tion­al ef­fic­acy against bac­teria, fungi, al­gae, and spores. There is even evid­ence for an ef­fic­acy against Hep­at­it­is B vir­uses, the Hu­man Im­mun­ode­fi­ciency Vir­us (HIV) as well as dif­fer­ent epi­dem­ics.

Here you can find some ECA Water Applications