▲ Samdo Environment / CEO Jeong Woo-nam

The One Health Initiative Task Force defines the term ‘one health’ as ‘the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment’. 

According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), 60% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonosis, a disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals, of which 75% started from animals. 

What these figure indicate is that humans awareness on importance of animal health has increased significantly than before. There are many factors that can affect health of animals. When it comes to animal husbandry, for instance, it is important for farmers to deal with droppings that emit toxic smells and it always has been an issue.  

Among millions of animals on earth, cattle, pigs and chickens are closely related to human life. They give us food but environmental pollution at the same time. Seeing the seriousness, the South Korean Environment Ministry rolled up sleeve and announced to reduce complaints about the stench by 50% until 2028. 

Plasma-generation technology leads one health industry

Plasma is a state in which gas molecules are divided into ion and electron by strong electrical force. During this process, ozone is made with help of oxygen in the air. Ozone removes harmful gases in the air such as ammonia and also kills harmful substances.

Samdo Environment is a South Korean company famous for its ‘livestock stench extractors’ built with core plasma technologies. The ozone from the extractors kills 99% of harmful substances in the air and removes more than 95% of organic compounds as well as harmful gases such as ammonia and acetic acid. 

A cattle farm in Naju City saw a sharp drop of ammonia intensity to 7ppm from 20ppm after using a livestock stench extractor. It is 3ppm less than the recommended level of 10ppm by the Korea Pork Producers Association. Livestock stench extractors are designed for one-off installation which makes them highly economic and cattle farmers just need to pay 20,000 won ($16) electricity bill a month. 

Proven effects

The effects of ozone to remove bad smells and harmful substances have been proved through numerous tests. A US Department of Agriculture’s report on ozone’s bacterial effect shows that it kills 99.9% of colon bacillus, staphylococcus, influenza and many more. 

A test on stench reduction carried out at Chonnam National University shows ammonia reduction by 72%. A research on removal of harmful gases and breeding carried out by Chonbuk National University shows 30~70% airbone microbe reduction. 

A test on removal of harmful gases and anti-bacteria carried out by the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology in 2017 shows inactivation of AI after 15 minutes of exposing to ozone and annihilation of dermanyssus gallinae when they were exposed to ozone for 120~150 seconds. 

Difference is made

Many existing plasma generators used in cattle farms have had frequent malfunction issues. But Samdo Environment’s livestock stench extractors significantly improved these issues.

“The cause of the frequent malfunction is that many existing plasma generators pile up ammonium nitrate in the machine during the process of removing stench. Samdo Environment’s livestock stench extractors are loaded with auto-washing function to resolve these issues” explains Jeong Woo-nam, CEO of Samdo Environment. 

These innovative stench extractors are currently being offered in two lines: TC2000 and TC2500. TC2000 generates 48g ozone per hour and TC2500 80g per hour. 

Samdo Environment received New Excellent Technology certificate from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and listed its named as the 8th A-Venture. Also, the company jointly registered a patent with the Korea Environment Corporation and as a result, Samdo Environment is recognized as the sole ‘plasma stench removal and sterilizer manufacturer’ in the field by the Korea Agricultural Machinery Industry Cooperative. 

Sailing towards professionalism

Plasma in fact is being used in many products such as drinking water, kitchen utensils and air purifiers. Gathering most of its accumulated technologies and experience, Samdo Environment is working on expanding the use of its plasma techniques. 

“Currently, we are working on waste water disposal plants, composite fields, food waste plants and fertilizer plants. These are the places where a variety of pollutant substances occur. So we will start from here and then expand to more areas to apply. It is our ultimate goal to build ‘smart stockbreeding system’ and we are determined to make it happen.”

It is promising that CEO Jeong already exported products to China and recently has launched a joint-research to target Spanish market.