Once upon a time… Hypochlorous Acid

A story that comes from afar

Once upon a time there was a young French chemist and pharmacist, a certain Doctor Antoine Jérôme Balard, who delighted in discovering new chemical elements and developing compounds, in the privacy of his laboratory. It was 1834.

And once upon a time there was a distinguished Russian scholar, Professor Vitold Bakhir, head of one of the most important schools of electrochemistry in the world. We are in the 70s, more than 140 years have passed and we are still indoors in a laboratory, but, this time, quite a bit different.

And again, once upon a time there was an eclectic entrepreneur from Bologna, Engineer Sandro Quadrelli, already active in the Emilian Packaging Valley with the production of equipment and machinery, who, by chance - as in all respectable stories - stumbles upon certain research and chemical studies that speak of a mysterious molecule with great powers and how it can be produced. Oh, right, we are at the beginning of the 2000s.

Origin and developments

The history of our unknown, Hypochlorous Acid, in the world and in Italy, revolves around these "characters" and along the temporal stages described: Dr. Balard was the first to discover the molecule, observing, inside the white blood cells, how our immune system reacts when it is attacked by pathogenic agents: it produces this substance that is able to fight the "bad guys".

But without Professor Bakhir's school, it would have been difficult to reproduce this natural molecule in a stable and usable way outside our body: a chemical, or rather electrochemical, process was needed that would allow it to be replicated outside.

Those who are not in the trade will surely already be imagining stills and test tubes, chemical reactions, explosions and puffs of smoke... well, none of this: electrochemistry means, of course, producing a reaction using electrical energy but here we are in a truly natural context, where nothing is artificial or synthetic.

And this is where the contribution of Eng. Quadrelli comes in, who, thanks to his entrepreneurial experience, his studies, and his collaborations with international universities and laboratories, in 2006 was able to develop and patent a four-chamber “cell”, within which to stably replicate, thanks to electricity applied to natural elements, with a totally green technology, the protection mechanism of our body that produces Hypochlorous Acid.

The 4-chamber cell

In essence, inside this four-chamber “cell” a mixture of filtered water and pure salt is introduced, which, activated by two special electrodes, with a certain voltage, returns this aqueous substance with a vaguely saline smell which is Hypochlorous Acid.

And if you want to know what these special electrodes are like and what is the “certain” voltage that is needed, unfortunately, we will not be able to satisfy your curiosity: it is our patent! Now, this seems like an all-male story but let's not forget that “innovation” is a feminine noun.

Innovation that never stops

Eng. Quadrelli's project to make known to the greatest possible number of people the benefits and great potential of this "gift of nature" that is Hypochlorous Acid, thanks to its "cell" and its generators, was missing a piece.

And so, once upon a time there was also a young entrepreneur, Alessandra, daughter of Sandro Quadrelli, who, taking up the baton, together with the rest of the family, worked to combine the production of machinery with a new business and a new brand, Ecasan , with which to offer the general public a complete range of innovative solutions for hygiene and well-being.

Looking to the future

The ambition is to become a point of reference in the Italian and European market, bringing into everyone's homes effective, ecological, concretely sustainable solutions for the protection and care of people, animals and the environment.

It's 2022 and the new chapter of this story is being written.