If you are weighing up eloclear for your site, you have probably already run into the questions that come with anything that works differently to the chemistry and processes you have used for decades. Is it really just salt and water? Does it actually clean, or only sanitise? What happens to my stainless steel? And what will it genuinely save?
This article answers the questions food and beverage manufacturers ask most when they first look at eloclear with terms, caveats, and the numbers.
What is eloclear?
eloclear is a combined cleaner and disinfectant for the food and beverage industry, made on your site from food-grade salt and water by electrolysis. It is produced at a ready-to-use concentration, so there are no hazardous concentrates to handle, store or dilute. It works by combining hypochlorous acid, a highly effective sanitiser, with sodium hypochlorite, a powerful cleaner, measured together as Free Available Chlorine (FAC).
Is it really just salt and water?
Yes. eloclear is made from nothing but food-grade salt and water. After electrolysis it contains 1,800 to 2,100 ppm of Free Available Chlorine, and that is it. No surfactants, no chelating agents, no co-formulants or stabilisers.
The active chemistry is generated where you use it, from two inputs you already understand, rather than shipped in as a drum of formulated product.
Is eloclear the same as hypochlorous acid (HOCl)?
No, and the difference is the reason manufacturers choose it. eloclear contains hypochlorous acid, but it is not the acidic, membrane-generated HOCl you may have evaluated before. Standard HOCl systems produce an acidic solution that is excellent at the final sanitising step but poor at cleaning, so they leave every upstream stage, the hot water, the foam detergent, the acid rinse, exactly where it was.
eloclear pairs HOCl with sodium hypochlorite and sits at a mildly alkaline pH of 8.8 to 9.2. That combination lets it clean and disinfect in a single step, lifting soils, fats and proteins as well as killing pathogens. It also differs from traditional electrolysed water, which uses membrane-separated cells that create a corrosive acidic stream alongside a caustic waste stream. eloclear is produced in membrane-free cells in a single pass, so there is no separate waste stream and no caustic soda to manage.
For more information on the differences between HOCl and eloclear take a look at our recent article.
What does eloclear actually clean and disinfect?
eloclear is a hard-surface cleaner and disinfectant with proven broad-spectrum efficacy. It is bactericidal, viricidal, fungicidal, yeasticidal, sporicidal and phagecidal. In UKAS-accredited testing to EN1276 and EN13697, it achieved greater than 5-log reductions against organisms including Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and Yersinia, at 2,000 ppm, in five minutes, under dirty conditions, and at chilled temperatures down to 10°C. That last detail matters, because 10°C is closer to the reality of a working food factory than the warm lab conditions many products are tested in.
It also deals with the problem that keeps recurring on many lines. As a powerful oxidiser, eloclear penetrates and oxidises biofilms rather than simply cleaning the surface of the biofilm, leading to the biofilm breaking down. Allergen removal has been validated in customer trials as well, which supports changeover and cross-contamination control.
Does eloclear need rinsing, and will it corrode my equipment?
eloclear is rinsed, so it is not a no-rinse product, but rinsing is fast because it does not foam. It can be rinsed with either cold or hot water, and because there are no foaming agents to chase off the surface, the rinse stage is quicker than with a conventional detergent.
On corrosion, eloclear is classified as potentially corrosive to metals, as virtually all cleaning and disinfection chemistries are, and it must be thoroughly rinsed. The difference is control. At pH 8.8 to 9.2 it is mildly alkaline with little or no free sodium hydroxide, which makes it safer and easier to handle than traditional caustic chemicals. And because it is non-foaming, you can confirm it has been fully rinsed away with simple test strips, something that is genuinely difficult to verify with foaming detergents. As with any chlorine-based chemistry, we do recommend replacing softer metals and brass or copper alloys.
Residues and by-products are managed the same way. Efficient rinsing removes both residual Free Available Chlorine and any chlorate, and rinsing efficiency has been confirmed analytically and in customer trials. Chlorate formation is minimised through controlled generation, eloclear complies with EN901, and because the cells are membrane-free, perchlorate is not formed at all.
What savings can I expect, and how quickly?
The economics tend to be positive from the first installation, with a short payback period, though the exact figures vary by sector and process. In broad terms, sites typically see 25 to 60% productivity gains, 40 to 60% less water, 40 to 60% less energy and around 50% fewer chemicals compared with their previous process, without compromising hygiene standards or food safety.
To put real numbers on it, a modelled UK meat processor saw annual savings of roughly 15.3 million litres of water, 1,339 MWh of energy, 13,100 hours of cleaning time and 225 tonnes of CO2. A UK seafood factory modelled around 289 tonnes of CO2 a year, most of it from cutting hot water use by about 40%.
There is a trade-off worth naming. You are now generating your cleaner on site, which means a piece of equipment to house and maintain rather than a drum that arrives on a pallet. For most sites the numbers land well ahead even after accounting for that, but it is a different operating model, and the savings above cut across both your on-site (Scope 1) and supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions.
How is eloclear produced and delivered on site?
eloclear is generated on your site, on demand, by an in-situ generator. For permanent installations, elosystem is a containerised, PLC-controlled unit that produces roughly 10,000 to 150,000 litres in 24 hours, sized to your daily demand. Its only raw material is salt, alongside softened mains water and power, which keeps the supply chain simple.
Product is distributed to the point of use, typically through a ring main for large static installations or via Mobile Application Units connected to IBCs during trials or where ringmains are unfeasible. To comply with UK and EU biocidal product regulations, eloclear is delivered as a managed service rather than a one-off purchase: an initial commitment-to-build payment followed by a monthly rental per installation, with engineering and technical support included, plus access to the eloinform data platform. eloinform gives you live visibility of production volumes, available stock and concentration, which doubles as ready-made QC records for audits.
How do you introduce eloclear to a factory?
Ozo uses a structured, four-stage approach, with a clear go/no-go decision at each stage, so you are never committing to more than the evidence supports. It runs from Scope and Assessment, through Baseline and Feasibility, into Optimisation and Validation, and finally Fulfilment, which covers the business case, engineering design, installation, training and change management.
Most evaluations begin with a proof-of-concept: an early, focused study on selected equipment and soils at your site, building on baseline data captured during scoping. It demonstrates cleaning and efficacy performance under your real production conditions before anything scales, which is the point at which the numbers stop being industry averages and start being yours.
The averages we have seen so far tell you eloclear is worth investigating; but only a trial on your own line tells you what it will do for your specific process, soils and utilities. If you have got to the end of this and you are wondering what those figures would look like for your site, that is exactly the conversation to have. Contact the Ozo team and we will talk through where eloclear fits, and what a first assessment would involve.
