Disinfection with UV LEDs key to more hygienic beer brewing

Disinfection with mercury-vapor UV lamps (light emission at 254nm) is a common practice in the food industry because it is effective in killing bacteria and viruses by destroying their genetic material. Due to toxic heavy metals in these lamps, researchers at Fraunhofer Institute of Optics in Germany are investigating the use of UV LED as a greener alternative. UV light with a wavelength of 265nmwas studied as an alternative. Additional disadvantages of the conventional UV lamps are their long warm-up phases, their short service lives, and the fact that they cannot be deployed flexibly due to their bulky design. UV LEDs do not require any warm-up phase – they reach full power instantly; they offer high mechanical stability, are non-toxic and will operate at low voltage. The researchers are now able to operate the UV LEDs directly in water without the need for a tube to encase them. Thus they eliminate reflections to increase the performance yield of the radiation sources. They also developed a special module that can disinfect the insides of beer caps. @ https://optics.org/news/10/8/21