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US-12623922-B2 - Device and method for treating liquid

US12623922B2US 12623922 B2US12623922 B2US 12623922B2US-12623922-B2

Abstract

Methods and devices use one or more of pressure, pressure drop, increased temperature, rate of temperature increase, and inert gas to kill microbes. Utilizing a method or device, liquid is subjected to a pressure drop and heated either during and/or after the pressure drop. The liquid may be heated while in droplet phase, in a liquid volume, or both. Inert gas may be dissolved into the liquid at a pressure greater than 1 Bar. The pressure is later reduced, which causes inert gas to be released from the liquid. Other method steps and processes are also disclosed.

Inventors

  • Dmitry Dolgopolov
  • Phillip R. Frechette
  • Nikolay Arofikin

Assignees

  • MILLISECOND TECHNOLOGIES CORP.

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20210824
Priority Date
20180727

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A method for treating a liquid, the method comprising: (a) diffusing a liquid into droplets in an inner cavity of a reactor; (b) subjecting the liquid to a pressure drop of five Bars or more; (c) increasing the temperature of the droplets by at least 2.8° C. in a first heating step; (d) collecting the droplets to create a volume of liquid in a reservoir in the inner cavity, wherein the droplets are not mixed with steam; and (e) increasing the temperature of the volume of liquid by at least 2.8° C. in a second heating step.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid is diffused into droplets by at least one nozzle.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one nozzle has an inlet and an outlet and the pressure of the liquid is at least five Bars higher at the inlet than at the outlet.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising increasing the pressure of the liquid at the inlet using a first pump.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid is increased in temperature by the at least 2.8° C. while it is being diffused into droplets.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transporting the volume of liquid outside of the reactor using a pump.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the temperature of the droplets is accomplished by subjecting the droplets to a suitable temperature inside of the inner cavity of the reactor.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising step of transporting the volume of liquid outside of the reactor and increasing the temperature of the volume of liquid by the at least 2.8° C. while the volume of liquid is at least partially outside of the reactor.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the volume of liquid is increased by the at least 2.8° C. while the volume of liquid is entirely in the reactor.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the liquid is from 35° C. to 85° C. after being increased by the at least 2.8° C.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the liquid is increased at a rate of 2° C./sec or more.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 1 that further includes a step of dropping the pressure at a rate selected from one of the group consisting of: any amount from 10 5 to 10 10 Pa/sec; 10 10 Pa/sec or more; 10 5 Pa/sec or more; eight bars per millisecond or more; eight bars per 1/10,000 second or more; eight bars per 1/100 second or more; eight bars per 1/10 second or more; eight bars per second or more, and eight bars per two seconds or more.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the liquid is diffused into droplets as it exits a nozzle and the average velocity of the liquid droplets inside of the reactor is 5 m/sec or more.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 1 that further includes a step of heating the liquid before it is diffused, wherein the liquid is heated to between 35° C. and 90° C. before being diffused.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprises a step of cooling the liquid to 8° C. to 25° C.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid is selected from one of the group consisting of: water, a blood product, blood plasma, a biological product, milk, fruit juice, coconut milk, liquid food, a pharmaceutical, biological products, a precursor of a biological product, albumin, immunoglobulin, bovine colostrum, serum, culture media, vegetable juice, coconut water, brewer's wort, and wine base.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the velocity of the liquid droplets exiting the nozzle is 5 m/sec or more.
  18. 18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure drop and temperature increase begin simultaneously.
  19. 19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature increase begins after the pressure drop begins.
  20. 20 . The method of claim 1 that is performed in a reactor and the dwell time of the liquid droplets in the reactor is 0.1 seconds to 1.0 seconds.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/567,594 filed Oct. 18, 2017 entitled “Killing Microbes With Pressure Drop and Heat,” which is a U.S. National Stage Application of PCT/US2016/029045 filed Apr. 22, 2016, which claims priority to, and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/152,689 filed on Apr. 24, 2015 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/209,039 filed on Aug. 24, 2015. This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/263,861 filed Jan. 27, 2021 entitled “Device and Method for Deactivating Pathogens in Blood Plasma, Blood Product and Biological Product” which is a U.S. National Stage application of PCT/US2018/048008 filed Aug. 24, 2018 and which claims priority to, and the benefit of, Russia Application Serial No. 2018127700, filed on Jul. 27, 2018. The disclosure of each of these applications that does not conflict with this application is incorporated herein by reference. The following are also incorporated herein by reference to the extent they do not conflict with this application: RU 2277834, A23L 3/16, 20 Jun. 2006, PCT/US16/29045, 22 Apr. 2016, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,708,941, 8,449,820, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0261017, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018/0092385; U.S. Pat. No. 8,449,820, U.S. Publication No. 2014/0261017, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/152,689, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/209,039. FIELD This disclosure includes methods and devices that utilize one or more of pressure, pressure drop, rate of pressure drop, temperature, rate of temperature increase, and inert gas, to kill and/or deactivate microbes (including pathogens) in a liquid. The system and method can be used for liquid products (referred to herein sometimes as just “liquid”) in any industry, such as the food, vaccine or pharmacological industries. Some typical liquid food products are water, milk, other dairy products, fruit juice (such as orange juice), coconut milk, coconut water, coconut cream, beer, wine, a blood product, blood plasma, a biological product, coconut milk, a liquid food product, a pharmaceutical, a biological product, precursors for making a pharmaceutical, albumin, immunoglobulin, bovine colostrum, serums, culture media, vegetable juice, brewer's wort, wine base, or any liquid. All such liquids, plus any other liquid in which the number of microbes (including pathogens) are to be reduced, are collectively referred to herein as “liquid.” As used herein, “reduce” or “reducing” the number of microbes (including pathogens) means to kill and/or deactivate them. When deactivated, microbes (including pathogens) lose the ability to live and multiply normally, although they may still be alive. BACKGROUND There are known methods of thermal treatment of liquid intended to destroy or decrease the amount of microbes (including pathogens) in the liquid. In some known methods, the microbes are killed by heating the liquid, sometimes by mixing the liquid with a heating medium (e.g., steam) and maintaining the liquid at a temperature to pasteurize or sterilize the liquid. One drawback of these known methods is that the liquid is mixed with excess water when the steam condenses. As a result water removal is necessary, which generally requires additional equipment, processing steps, time and expense. Another drawback of these known methods is potential deterioration of quality and taste after heating, regardless of how the heating is performed. Another known method is one in which liquid is mixed with a heating medium of at a rate of about 1400° C./sec or more for pasteurization and about 7600° C./sec or more for sterilization to a temperature not exceeding the temperature at which qualitative changes in the liquid takes place (such qualitative changes and temperatures being known to those skilled in the art). The product is diffused into droplets preferably not exceeding 0.3 mm in diameter (this process is described in Russian Patent No. 2,052,967, the disclosure of which that is not inconsistent with the disclosure herein, is incorporated by reference). This method promotes efficient thermal treatment of the liquid, kills microbes (including pathogens) and its impact to the qualitative aspects of the liquid is less adverse, because it increases the rate at which the liquid product is heated and only maintains the product at a high temperature for a short duration. This method can be performed in a pasteurization device, which typically contains a liquid product diffuser, a pasteurization chamber, a nozzle for steam, a steam generator, a cooling chamber, and a vacuum pump. A drawback of this method is that it still mixes the liquid with steam or hot air, which can adversely impact the stability of organoleptic and physicochemical properties (such as taste, odor, color, or consistency) of the liquid, and does not guarantee the