Feasibility study of X-ray sterilization

• Main Author: Ng, Hui Hui
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61643
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Today, sterilization is done on food products and medical devices in many forms such as heat, ethylene oxide, hydrogen peroxide or radiation, to decrease the contamination level of these products. However radiation methods are becoming more preferred due to research that have determined radiation to result in cleaner products with fewer changes to the inherent properties and characteristics of the products than steam, ethylene oxide and other treatments. X-ray is a relatively new radiation method, which can possibly overtake its predecessors: electron beam and gamma rays in terms of penetration depth. Furthermore, its ability to be turned off and to offer a moderately higher dose rate gives it an advantage over the commonly used gamma-rays. The current application for X-ray is the utilization of high energy X-ray for sterilization of pallet loads of products. However, due to high transport costs and the time losses, manufacturers are interested in low-power X-ray for in-line and in-house sterilization. Therefore, the feasibility of using low-energy X-rays for in-line sterilization purpose needs to be investigated. This report will focus on determining the optimal parameters so as to achieve a high dosage and good uniformity for the sample subject, evaluating the effectiveness of the X-ray sterilization on the subject and nutrition testing to examine any changes induced on the subject due to the irradiation.