When the covid-19 pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, Electrolux Professional realized that their customers, including those outside the hospital and healthcare segment, had an increased need for laundry and drying products that were guaranteed to disinfect textiles. However, testing the effectiveness of products on actual bacteria and viruses is very costly. Therefore, researchers at RISE, based on several scientific studies on inactivation of bacteria and viruses, have created mathematical models to predict the disinfection capacity of laundry and drying products.
Electrolux Professional, which this year celebrates 120 years, offers complete solutions with washing machines, dryers, mangles and other equipment for professional use. In the company's concept, it is important to be able to guarantee customers functional products and that it is possible to determine the degree of microbiological killing obtained in each step of the washing and drying process.
– Before the pandemic, it was mainly customers in the Care segment, ie hospitals and healthcare, who demanded a washing process where viruses and bacteria are deactivated and killed, says Silvana Johansson, Global Head of Category Laundry at Electrolux Professional. When the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, people became anxious due to the risk of infection, and we quickly realized that even those of our customers who take care of, for example, hotel laundry and laundry rooms must be able to offer guaranteed hygienically clean laundry.
Correct time and temperature
In order to achieve an optimal process and end result, it is a matter of combining washing and drying times with the right temperatures.
– In an efficient, safe and sustainable washing and drying process, bacteria are killed and viruses are inactivated - something that of course came into extra focus during the pandemic. In this project, our task has been to help Electrolux Professional in their development work, where one aspect has been to increase knowledge about which parameters play a role in efficiency and to test different products. By using mathematical models, we can make a microbiological risk assessment in a cost-effective way, says Erik Nygren, project manager at RISE and researcher in process technology, safety and hygiene.
It is important for us to be able to offer a washing process based on research and facts
Required to work even with incorrect dosage
In large washing plants, dosing of detergent usually takes place automatically, while in smaller plants dosing is done manually. Therefore, it has been an important aspect of the development work that the killing and deactivating effect on bacteria and viruses should be independent of the human factor – even if the detergent were incorrectly dosed, the combination of the program's temperature and time will guarantee a hygienically clean wash.
In order to be able to study deactivation and killing of viruses and bacteria present in a product or in a production plant, practical experiments have often been used in the past with contaminated washcloths that passed through the washing machine, which were then analyzed after washing. The advantage of working with mathematical modeling is that you take advantage of the great knowledge and established methodology that is already used to study at what temperatures different microorganisms die or are inactivated. Using mathematical models in this way is a classic methodology from the food and process industry area. RISE has, among other things, done similar assignments where deactivation of microorganisms in recycled paper fibers from paper napkins were studied.
– Some viruses are always relevant for the customer to work with, such as winter vomiting. What RISE offers is an understanding of which viruses and bacteria we really need to deactivate and relate to, what is required to kill or deactivate, the amount of microorganisms in the process, as well as the consequences of different amounts and types of microorganisms, says Erik Nygren, who worked in the project together with colleague Lars Hamberg, researcher in process technology, safety and hygiene at RISE. For example, a vomiting disease is not such a serious infection for most people, but the perceived feeling is very stressful.
Combination of competences
By combining two different core competencies, RISE has contributed with an understanding of the evaluation of various infectious diseases, process technical understanding and engineering thinking. This is to be able to map processes together with the customer and mathematically model them in order to get a figure on how much viruses and bacteria are deactivated and killed in the washing process.
– The challenge lies in understanding the customer's actual needs to be able to meet these. Another important part is the educational aspect, as it is part of RISE's overall goal to strengthen the competitiveness of Swedish industry, says Erik Nygren. We must not only deliver a product, but also an understanding - for example of how to identify and prevent the spread of disease-causing or product-destroying microorganisms. In this project, we model on laundry and drying products, but it can just as easily be about recycling food packaging.
Erik Nygren believes that demand for this type of service will increase, especially from customers who need to work with microbiological risk assessments based on the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulations. RISE is well equipped to take on similar assignments as for Electrolux Professional in several sectors, both through strong interdisciplinary expertise, where customers do not have to turn to several players to solve the task, and through a well-proven methodology combined with a large database of current microorganisms.
– We have worked together with RISE in various contexts for many years, so it was an obvious contact to make when we realized the seriousness of the new situation that the pandemic entailed, says Silvana Johansson. It is important for us to be able to offer a washing process based on research and facts, as that is our guarantee that our customers get a safe product. We have benefited greatly from the collaboration and received a very good delivery in the form of project management, shared knowledge, reports and webinars.