Disinfecting with radio frequencies

Cleaning up the food industry could get cleaner with a new approach using radio frequency heating developed by a professor at the University of California, Davis.

Boston-based Allied Minds, a pre-seed investment firm, announced today that it has established RF Biocidics, a U.C. Davis spin-out company, to develop and commercialize the disinfectant and disinfestant technology.

Research chemist Manuel Lagunas-Solar, a professor at U.C. Davis, is working on the system, which Allied Minds said can eliminate pathogens and insects without the use of chemicals or radiation.

"Most of what's being done today comes in the realm of using harsh chemicals," Marc Eichenberger, COO of Allied Minds, told the Cleantech Group.

"In some of the most extreme cases, you have stuff like methyl bromide that, actually, governments around the world are trying to phase out."

The investment group said RF heating can deliver lethal energy to insects and microbes without disturbing or damaging the host material or leaving behind any molecules.

"Wood's a big problem," said Eichenberger. "If you think about all the pallets and containers that are made of wood, they carry pests around the world as things are shipped."

Allied Minds, which is not sector specific, invests in university and institutional spinouts, with a network of over 25 U.S. universities, as well as two national laboratories.

The amount of Allied's investment in RF Biocidics was not disclosed, but Eichenberger said his firm invests from the low six figures to $1.5 million in its portfolio companies.

Last October, Allied made its first investment in the cleantech field with a $500,000 commitment to SiEnergy Systems, a Harvard spin-off that's commercializing a new solid oxide fuel cell technology.

SiEnergy is working on technology that provides low temperature operation with high power density.

The fuel cell company is targeting power for small vehicles, such as forklifts, scooters, and recreational vehicles, as well as backup power applications and power for portable electronics.

RF Biocidics' said its RF heating system is based on the difference in electrical conductivity between arthropod pests, which is high, and the host commodity, which is low.

The company said it has already demonstrated the advantages of lower frequencies in terms of the type and efficiency of RF interactions with different materials.

Eichenberger said the system can uniformly go through products like nuts or grains and disinfect and disinfest.

"The whole objective is that you kill the parasites, whether they're insects or whether they're things like E. coli, salmonella, other types of bacteria or fungi, while leaving the host material as untouched as possible," he said.

"And this technology does it for a whole host of materials and products."

In addition to avoiding the downsides of using potentially toxic chemicals, RF Biocidics said its system can also avoid the types of problems caused by using thermal heat to clean food, which can change the color and texture of the product.

The technology could also have applications in other markets, including as an alternative to pasteurization, an anti-bioterrorism measure, and more.

"There are some medical applications," said Eichenberger.

Allied, which has a significant medical portfolio, sees the RF technology being useful in medical sterilization.

"RF is good with anything other than metal."

Eichenberger said a prototype of the system could be coming within a matter of months, and that they're talking with a number of companies to "take it on a tour."

"It's actually fairly well developed, compared to some of our other investments, which are really earlier stage in terms of design development."

"We're already having discussions with a few companies of how to bring this to market in different areas of the world," he said.

The investment firm is also looking at other variations of the system, but Eichenberger would only say that it would depart from the existing patent, developing the technology so it could be applicable to other types of materials.

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