New Bioterrorism Technology Tested in UK

Bioantigen, of Port Talbot, Wales, and its German partners have developed the Biowhirlwind, a new technology they claim kills all known diseases living in water.

The device employing the new technology was put to the test at its official launch this week in the town. Its makers say it has attracted interest from the Ministry of Defense as well as leading scientists from around the world.

Steve Law of Bioantigen said all microbes could be killed by passing water and air through a vortex in a steel cube at extremely high pressures.

The possibility of using the device if terrorists managed to contaminate water supplies or infect cooling towers at targets such as airports is being researched.

If Bioantigen finds a market, Law hopes it will lead to a huge expansion of the company, which currently has a workforce of 13.

"It's brand new technology but we like to think it's low-tech rather than high-tech," he said.

"In the center of the cube is what we call the combustion chamber – that's where a vortex action takes place. Just using air and water at very high pressures we believe we can inactivate, in theory, any microbe on the planet," Law continued.

"The main problems in terms of threats like bio-terrorism would perhaps be putting something bad into a stored water system or if it were put into a cooling tower and it them spread into the atmosphere," he explained. "Our machine can treat the problem at source and make sure water stays fresh, clean and bug free … We've had calls in from America, Korea, China, in fact virtually every country you can imagine."

The company has grown rapidly, and further expansion would be inevitable, according to its founder, if the new device found a market.

Source: BBC News