Cold plasma kills the stench of greasy spoons

GARCHING, Germany, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Frying potatoes in vats of hot oil is smelly. Commercial kitchen hoods, complete with smell-killing chemicals, are the main reason burger joints don't stink up whole blocks.

Those hoods and their chemicals create ozone as a byproduct -- both a health and environmental hazard. Researchers in Germany believe they have a solution to the problem: cold plasma.

Most plasma consists of hot, ionized gas, but plasma can also be generated at room temperature. Many food industry scientists are intrigued by cold plasma's ability to kill bacteria, fungi, viruses and spores.

For the last 15 years, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have been working with the European Space Agency on cold plasma generation technologies. Astronauts on the International Space Station have aided the cause.

ISS astronauts have been studying space-based "complex plasmas," or "dusty plasmas," since 2001. Dusty plasmas are plasmas generated by ionizing dust particles. The research, now its fourth phase on the space station, has inspired cold plasma technologies back on Earth.

Gregor Morfill, an MPI physicist, spun his research into a company, which uses cold plasma technologies for water treatment, and to solve medical and hygiene problems.

Morfill's company, Terraplasma, is now working with Blumchen, an industrial kitchen appliance maker, to develop cold plasma technology for commercial cooking hoods.

"The new design works by using electrons within the plasma to neutralize odors," Morfill said in a news release. "The thin plasma sheet breaks the offending molecules up into harmless components that do not smell and do not need to be extracted afterwards. It's also about a thousand times faster than the traditional chemical method."