STUDY OF THE POTENTIAL USAGE OF ANOLYTES ANK TO REMOVE BIOLOGICAL FOULING FROM DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

The prospects for using neutral anolytes ANK of Ukrainian producers for cleaning emitters and pipelines of drip irrigation systems from contaminants of biological origin have been studied. The relaxation characteristics of the neutral anolytes ANK were determined, changes in their main characteristics (TDS, ppm, pH; ORP, mV) were established depending on the degree of dilution with water, and an assessment of the market and production capacities of anolytes ANK in Ukraine was performed. The laboratory, laboratory-analytical, field, and mathematical-statistical comparative research methods were applied to determine the effectiveness of flushing the emitters and drip irrigation pipelines with environmentally safe neutral anolytes ANK of Ukrainian manufacturers ("AQUA SALIS", "Krystal", and "Secobren") and environmentally hazardous 15% sodium hypochlorite produced in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The presence of a biological component of contaminants was determined using the Biuret reaction. It has been found that obtaining effective solutions for flushing emitters and pipelines of drip irrigation systems from contamination of biological origin, with an ORP of not less than +750 mV, is possible by diluting the anolytes ANK produced by "Aquasalis", "Krystal", and "Secobren" with irrigation water in a 1:40 ratio; produced by "Sterilox", "Vitalmix" and "Allsteril" - in a 1:20 ratio. Visual and quantitative indicators of the quality of flushing the emitters and drip irrigation pipelines from contaminants of biological origin were obtained. In laboratory, it was determined that the flow rate of drip pipelines with 20 emitters clogged with biological contaminants after washing with hypochlorite "AquaDoctor", depending on the pressure, increased by 17,6...52,3%, with anolyte "Krystal" - by 23,7...92,0%. Field flushing of 136 m long drip irrigation pipelines with 340 emitters with anolytes ANK resulted in an increase in the flow rate of one pipeline by 8 l/h, and the other - by 13 l/h. It has been found that neutral anolytes ANK produced in Ukraine are an effective and environmentally safe alternative to chemicals (chlorine, 15% sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide), which are currently used to flush emitters and drip irrigation pipelines from contaminants of biological origin. It was determined that Ukrainian production capacities for anolytes ANK are capable of meeting the needs of Ukrainian farmers for flushing emitters and drip irrigation pipelines.