Subject: EMP kills germs (repost)
Author:   DJohnson
Email: DJohnson@DJandAssoc.Com
Date: 04/01/1999
Newsgroups: alt.sci.amateur
   
About 25 years ago I worked on a R&D project to find ways to kill bacteria in
a continuous flow of beer, without changing its taste.  The project was
funded by a well known brewer here in Colorado.  We used a 10,000 joule
capacitor discharge (360uF @10,000 volts) machine that simultaneously
subjected the beer to an intense magnetic field and a large current.  The
crossed fields during the discharge produced pressure waves in the fluid that
were so steep that it ripped apart the cell wells and killed most of the bugs
with one shot.  The project funding was stopped when it was discovered that
some of the germs that survived the shots mutated into something different.
Has this technique been used anywhere else successfully?

David A. Johnson, P.E.  Consulting Engineer