Difference Between Autoclave and Sterilizer

The key difference between autoclave and sterilizer is that autoclave is a type of sterilizer that uses steam for the disinfection process, whereas sterilizer is any system that can disinfect an object through different methods.

An autoclave is also known as “steam sterilizer” because it can disinfect an object using steam as the mode of disinfection. There are many other types of sterilizers that can disinfect objects through different modes such as heat treatment, using chemicals, irradiation, high-pressure application and filtration.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is an Autoclave 
3. What is a Sterilizer
4. Similarities Between Autoclave and Sterilizer
5. Side by Side Comparison – Autoclave vs Sterilizer in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is an Autoclave?

An autoclave is an instrument that is useful in carrying out industrial and laboratory processes that require high temperature and pressure conditions. These temperature and pressure conditions are chosen with respect to the ambient pressure and temperature. We can use an autoclave in medical applications for sterilization processes. In the chemical industry, we can use an autoclave in curing coatings and vulcanization of rubber. Moreover, we can use this instrument in hydrothermal synthesis applications. Besides, an autoclave is useful in industrial processes, including the manufacturing of composites.

We mainly use autoclave as an instrument that is important in sterilizing the equipment by subjecting the equipment to pressurized saturated steam at high temperature for about 20 minutes (the time and the temperature we should use depend on the size and the load of the content that we are going to use inside the autoclave).

This instrument was invented by Charles Chamberland in 179. However, there was a precursor to this instrument that was discovered in 1679t. This was created by Denis Papin and was named as steam digester.

Figure 01: A Cylindrical Autoclave

We use this type of instruments in fields like microbiology, medicine, podiatry, tattooing, body piercing, veterinary medicine, mycology, dentistry, etc. These instruments can vary in size and function. Typically, we can use loads such as laboratory glassware, equipment and waste, surgical instruments, and medical waste in an autoclave.

When operating an autoclave, we can use indicators that help us to ensure that the instrument reaches the correct temperature at the correct amount of time. These indicators can be physical, chemical or biological. Generally, chemical indicators tend to give a colour change. The biological indicators that we can use include spore of heat resistant bacteria.

What is a Sterilizer?

A sterilizer is an instrument and a heat exchanger that we can use to heat a product to the sterilization temperature. We can observe that there are two major types of sterilizers as direct sterilizer and indirect sterilizer. The direct sterilizers or direct heaters include steam injectors and steam infusers. The indirect heaters include tubular heaters, plate heaters, and scraped surface heaters.

Generally, steam or hot water is the source of heat for continuous thermal sterilization. Here, direct contact heating has the step of mixing steam and product together. However, during the indirect heating process, the product is heated using transferred heat from water or steam through a heat exchange wall. This wall can be a tube-like structure, a plate, or a scraped surface.

What are the Similarities Between Autoclave and Sterilizer?

• Both are instruments.
• They are sterilizing machines.

What is the Difference Between Autoclave and Sterilizer?

An autoclave is a type of steam sterilizer instrument. The key difference between autoclave and sterilizer is that autoclave is a type of sterilizer that uses steam for the disinfection process, whereas sterilizer is any system that can disinfect an object through different methods. Furthermore, autoclave mainly has medicine and laboratory uses, while sterilizers mainly have industrial applications.

Below is a summary of the difference between autoclave and sterilizer in tabular form.

Summary – Autoclave vs Sterilizer

The key difference between autoclave and sterilizer is that autoclave is a type of sterilizer that uses steam for the disinfection process, whereas sterilizer is any system that can disinfect an object through different methods.

Reference:

“Sterilizer.” Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Cylindrical-research-autoclave-illustration” By Priorclave North America – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia

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