A pilot line of antibacterial and antifungal medical textiles based on a sonochemical process SONO

Beginning: 01 October 2009 End: 30 September 2013

Beneficiaries
1-    Bar Ilan University (ISRAEL)
2-    Coventry University (UK)
3-    Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya (SPAIN)
4-    National R&D Institute for Textile and Leather (ROMANIA)
5-    WESSEX Institute (UK)
6-    Torras Valenti S.A. (SPAIN)
7-    Viatech Ltd (RUSSIA)
8-    Cedrat Technologies S.A. (FRANCE)
9-    Kitozyme (BELGIUM)
10- Pielaszek Research (POLAND)
11- Davo Star IMPEZ SRL (ROMANIA)
12- OSM-DAN Ltd (ISRAEL)
13- Klopman International S.R.L. (ITALY)
14- Environment Parl S.p.A (ITALY)
15- Afcon Industries Ltd (ISRAEL)
16- AITEX (SPAIN)
17- Emergency Medicine Institute « Pigorov » (BULGARIA)

Budget
Elegible budget : 12.040.040€ EC contribution : 8.300.000€

Objectives
Hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections are a major financial issue in the European healthcare system. The financial impact of these infections counteract medical advances and expensive medical treatments by increasing the length of hospital stay by at least 8 days on average per affected patient, hence adding more than 10 millions patient days in hospitals in Europe per year. The statistics on patient safety in the EU show alarming tendencies : – 1 in 10 patients are affected by hospital-acquired infections – 3 million deaths are caused by hospital-acquired infections An active infection control program of patients and personnel and hygiene measures, have proven to significantly reduce both the number of infections and hospitalisation costs . The SONO project directly addresses the above problems by developing a pilot line for the production of medical antibacterial textiles. The pilot line will be based on the scale-up of a sonochemical process developed and patented at BIU laboratories. The pilot line will use a sonochemical
technique to produce and deposit inorganic, antimicrobial nanoparticles on medical textiles, e.g. hospital sheets, medical coats and bandages. Sonicators are used industrially for heavy and light duty cleaning, for water disinfection and for sewage treatment. It is also used in the food industry for emulsification and drying. The proposed concept based on one step sonochemical process to produce nanoparticles and impregnate them as antibacterial factors on textile is novel and does not exist on an industrial scale. The concept has already been proven (and patented) on a lab scale where sonochemistry was applied to impregnate nanoparticles in a single-step process. It was demonstrated that due to the special properties of the sonochemical method the antibacterial nanoparticles are adsorbed permanently on the fibres even after 70 “laundry cycles”. The sonochemical impregnation process is a one-step procedure in which the nanoparticles are produced and impregnated into the textile.

SONO Consortium homepage: http://www.fp7-sono.eu/