Patent ID: 8389575

Claim:
A process for disinfecting a hard surface or inanimate object by producing a target concentration of peroxycarboxylic acid comprising: a. selecting a set of reaction components to produce a target concentration of peroxycarboxylic acid, said reaction components comprising: 1) at least one: i) ester having the structure [X] m R 5 wherein X is an ester group of the formula R 6 C(O)O; R 6 is a C1 to C7 linear, branched or cyclic hydrocarbyl moiety, optionally substituted with hydroxyl groups or C1 to C4 alkoxy groups, wherein R 6 optionally comprises one or more ether linkages when R 6 is C2 to C7; R 5 is a C1 to C6 linear, branched, or cyclic hydrocarbyl moiety optionally substituted with hydroxyl groups; wherein each carbon atom in R 5 individually comprises no more than one hydroxyl group or no more than one ester group; wherein R 5 optionally comprises one or more ether linkages; m is an integer from 1 to the number of carbon atoms in R 5 ; said ester having a solubility in water of at least 5 parts per million at 25° C.; or ii) glyceride having the structure wherein R 1 is C 1 to C 7 straight chain or branched chain alkyl optionally substituted with an hydroxyl or a C1 to C4 alkoxy group and R 3 and R 4 are individually H or R 1 C(O); or iii) acetylated monosaccharide, acetylated disaccharide, or acetylated polysaccharide; or mixtures thereof; 2) a source of peroxygen; 3) an enzyme catalyst having perhydrolysis activity, wherein said enzyme catalyst comprises an enzyme having a CE-7 signature motif that aligns with a reference sequence SEQ ID NO: 2 using CLUSTALW, said signature motif comprising: i) an RGQ motif at amino acid positions 118-120 of SEQ ID NO:2; ii) a GXSQG motif at amino acid positions 179-183 of SEQ ID NO:2; and iii) an HE motif at amino acid positions 298-299 of SEQ ID NO:2; and wherein said enzyme comprises at least 30% amino acid identity to SEQ ID NO: 2; and 4) optionally at least one buffer; b. combining the selected set of reaction components under aqueous reaction conditions to form a reaction mixture; whereby reaction products are formed comprising peroxycarboxylic acid; wherein the reaction products comprising peroxycarboxylic acid reduce the reaction mixture pH to less than about 6.0 within about 1 minute to about 10 minutes of combining the reaction components and produce the target concentration of peroxycarboxylic acid; wherein the reduction in the reaction mixture pH is used to control the target concentration of peroxycarboxylic acid produced; and c. applying the peroxycarboxylic acid produced in step (b) to a hard surface or inanimate object.