Product microbial disinfection and biotechnology

This set of class lecture notes provides a good list and description of widely used methods for controlling microbial populations in water, foods and on surfaces. This class site gives a general overview of microbial control methods. This online textbook covers all of the standard methods for killing and controlling microbes. Chlorine is one of the standard methods for water disin-fection, and this Web brochure provides excellent information on how chlorine works and details of its spectrum of action. This commercial site provides links to information on many different types of water disinfection, comparing and contrasting different methods. This patent relates to a method of enzymatically removing cyanuric acid from waters in which it builds up as a dis-infection by-product and diminishes the disinfecting action of chlorine (hypochlorite). Biocides are very important in the oil and gas industry to prevent fouling and souring of gas (reduction of sulfate to hydrogen sulfide). This is especially important with the advent of hydraulic fracturing in which large amounts of water are injected into shale for producing oil and gas. There are many ways to prepare surfaces to prevent the adherence and growth of microorganisms. A new field of study in this area is on the surface nanotopography of natural surfaces that are antibacterial, and this is addressed in the review article. This website deals with a large number of antimicrobial surfaces with a major focus on the types of materials employed. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.