'Lotus' system turns water into natural sanitizer

Tag: Sanitizer
Five years ago, Steve Hengsperger was working as a mechanical engineer in water purification when he had an epiphany.Add an extra oxygen atom to the compound H2O -- otherwise known as water -- and you have a cleaner that is naturally greener."I just set out to make a system that made it really easy to charge water," Hengsperger said.That system is called Lotus. It charges water to make a cleaner that is more powerful and faster-acting than bleach.It kills E. coli and salmonella and removes 99.9 percent of pesticides and chemicals from food.All it takes is cold tap water, and a natural oxidant is created, Hengsperger said."Commercially there are systems out there that do the same thing but on a large scale," he said. "Hospitals sterilize medical equipment using this kind of technology.Also, hot tubs use this system. "We took this technology, miniaturized it, made it safe," he said. "Got all the approval so that it's effective."It comes with a spray bottle for surface cleaning and a bowl for cleaning produce."In four minutes or more it will remove any bacteria, viruses and pesticides from your produce," Hengsperger said. "It makes your produce taste a lot better and it makes it last up to four times as long. It smells like outside after a rain storm. Like a nice thunderstorm, just a nice fresh smell."But how do you know the Lotus works on something you can't see like bacteria?"That's one of the big questions we have, how do I know it works? We could not put the sanitizing name on the product until we passed the EPA protocol," Hengsperger said.