Makes water behave like a powerful detergent - without adding chemicals
November 27th 2007 A new green technology from Tenant electrically activates plain tap water to make it behave like a powerful detergent without the need to add chemicals.
The company says ech2o’s cleaning effectiveness is proven to be the same or better than general purpose cleaners, without the negative environmental impact and health issues associated with producing, packaging, transporting, using and disposing of traditional cleaning chemicals. ech2o begins as water and ends as water.
How ech2o Works
The ech2o technology has multiple patents pending. The system works by unlocking the vast amounts of energy stored in the water molecule H2O. This is accomplished through a special ech2o unit that is installed in a Tennant Company floor-cleaning machine.
Inside the unit, two primary steps transform normal tap water into a powerful cleaning solution. In the first step, water passes through electrified screens in the oxygenation chamber, creating highly oxygenated micro-bubbles. In the second step, the oxygenated water is sent through a water cell where an electric current is applied. Flowing out of the water cell is highly charged, acidic and alkaline water with all the attributes of a powerful cleaner. In this activated state, ech2o is an effective cleaning agent that poses no harm to the surfaces or finishes it cleans, or to people using the technology.
The electrically charged water attacks the dirt, breaks it into smaller particles and suspends it off the floor’s surface — enabling the scrubber’s pads or brushes to easily remove the soil. Approximately 45 seconds after it was created, the cleaning solution returns to plain H2O. What is left in the recovery tank is just plain water and dirt. In this process, 100 percent of the water used reverts to neutral tap water and can be handled and disposed of safely.
“Our tests found that Tennant Company’s new ech2o cleaning solution performs as well as other general purpose cleaners,” said Mark Citsay, of Aspen Research, St. Paul, Minn., a research laboratory that tested and verified the effectiveness of cleaning with ech2o.
Among ech2o’s additional benefits, it uses 70 percent less water than traditional cleaning methods. Since no detergents are added to the ech2o system, ech2o does not leave slippery detergent residue on the floor, nor does it release used detergent discharge into water systems. Further, eliminating the need for chemical additives enhances worker safety and reduces costs for purchasing and disposal of chemicals.
Tennant Company is the first in its industry to harness the power of water for cleaning hard-floor surfaces and to use the technology on a mobile platform, such as ride-on and walk-behind floor scrubbing machines. The company plans to make its patent-pending processing unit available on several models of its cleaning machine platforms.
For further information, just  click here.
| 
