Peracetic acid as supplemental sanitiser/disinfectant for pool?

[JamesW]

handed him a jug of PAA and told him it was his favorite way to do it and would clean him up lickety-split.

Eager to clear his pool and lacking further instruction in the finer points of chemistry, said son of the oil patch went out to his back yard and upended the jug into his pool. He tells me the reaction was immediate and “awesome” to watch. He said you could watch the algae die and fall out of solution right before your eyes.

For a single jug of anything, it seems highly unlikely that it would be such a dramatic reaction.

There is only so much oxidizing power in a given amount of any product.

Unless the jug was 100 gallons, I doubt that it had much effect.

You can add enough liquid chlorine to do the same thing if you are willing to go crazy high on the chlorine levels (100 ppm +).

 

[JamesW]

A few days later his brand new Pentair intelliflo pump began leaking in an uncontrollable fashion.

Unlikely that a single jug of any product had enough effect to destroy the seal especially if the product was used up oxidizing algae.

Sometimes people's stories are exaggerated and just do not makes common sense.

 

[JamesW]

PAA has a higher oxidation potential (1.96 V) compared to chlorine (1.4 V) or even to chlorine dioxide (1.5 V) and is effective in the removal/inactivation of bacteria (e.g., Escherichia coli, Enterococci, Pseudomonas spp., and Salmonella spp.) and viruses (e.g., Coxsackievirus B3, coliphages, Norwalk virus) .

In the disinfection process, PAA breaks down into hydrogen peroxide (H2⁢O2), oxygen, water, and acetic acid , producing less toxic DBP than chlorine.

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/JOEEDU.EEENG-7449

Composition:
C2H4O3. Peracetic acid is a mixture of acetic acid (CH3COOH) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in an aqueous solution.

Acetic acid is the principle component of vinegar.

Hydrogen peroxide has been previously recommended by the NOSB for the National List in processing (synthetic, allowed at Austin, 1995).

Properties:

It is a very strong oxidizing agent and has stronger oxidation potential than chlorine or chlorine dioxide.

Liquid, clear, and colorless with no foaming capability. It has a strong pungent acetic acid odor, and the pH is acid (2.8). Specific gravity is 1.114 and weighs 9.28 pounds per gallon. Stable upon transport.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Peracetic%20Acid%20Technical%20Report%20Handling.pdf

 

[JamesW]

who surmised that the do-gooder may have added too much PAA to the pool water and thus upset the pH in the pool water and “done ate the seals right up”.

The pH will not drop that much with a single jug of anything.

Even if the TA dropped to 0 (which it didn't from a single jug unless the TA was already below 10 ppm), the seals do not just dissolve.

There is a lot more to the story than we know, but the available information does not add up.

 

[ajw22]

For a single jug of anything, it seems highly unlikely that it would be such a dramatic reaction.

There is only so much oxidizing power in a given amount of any product.

Unless the jug was 100 gallons, I doubt that it had much effect.

You can add enough liquid chlorine to do the same thing if you are willing to go crazy high on the chlorine levels (100 ppm +).

Com’on, don’t ruin a good fish story.

 

[JamesW]

My pool had 1 million pounds of algae and I used one drop of super-duper powerful magic oxidizer and the algae all died in 1 quintillionth of a femtosecond.

The drop was so powerful that the algae died before the drop even hit the water.

You can’t even get the chemical unless you have a special license signed by the President.

 

[ajw22]

My pool had 1 million pounds of algae and I used one drop of super-duper powerful magic oxidizer and the algae all died in 1 quintillionth of a femtosecond.

The drop was so powerful that the algae died before the drop even hit the water.

You can’t even get the chemical unless you have a special license signed by the President.

But can it power an AI Datacenter?