The Science Behind Steam Sterilization

The rate by which bacterial cells are thermally inactivated depends on the temperature and the time of heat exposure to which they are exposed. In practical terms this means that it would take a longer amount of time at lower temperatures to sterilize a population than at a high temperature. Additionally, the higher the concentration of organisms that need to be killed, the longer it will take to kill all of the cells in that population at the same temperature.