Enzymatic removal of biofilms: A report

Abstract

Biofilms are recognized to be a critical and hard to remove contamination source. The presence of a biofilm results in a number of dangers for human health or industrial activities: hygiene and food safety in the food industry, nosocomial diseases in hospitals, clogging and contaminations in water systems including cooling systems, pipes corrosion, boat-hulls fooling, etc. Many branches of industry or healthcare services attempt to control biofilm by chemical shocks (acid, base, and disinfectant). But this has been proved to be inefficient in removing entirely the biofilm, presenting furthermore a high aggressiveness for materials. Following a two-year research project, REALCO and the INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research) developed an enzyme-based process to remove biofilms from surfaces in numerous applications. That process, involving a specific enzymes cocktail and a detergent phase, showed high efficiency at both lab and pilot scale on different biofilms, before it now reaches proved success in industrial applications.