2023-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS2023 Volume 5. Guerrant Intl. Symp /Covid-19 and Infectious Diseases
| Editors: | F. Kongoli, F. Murad, W. Petri, H. Inufusa, S. Heysell, J. Yedoyan |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2023 |
| Pages: | 92 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-989820-80-3 (CD) |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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AIR-CLENZ NOVEL EXHALED-AIR-CAPTURE-AND-PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MULTI-OCCUPANT INDOOR VENUES
Anita Trajkovska-Broach1; Ronald Blum2; Stu Sheldon3;1SCIENTIST/CONSULTANT, CSI: CREATE. SOLVE. INNOVATE. LLC, Blacksburg, United States; 2CHAIRMAN/PRESIDENT, Atlanta, United States; 3CEO, Atlanta, United States;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 286
Topic: 68
Abstract:
HVAC systems and air purifiers in classrooms, offices, and most other indoor spaces have an inherent design flaw when tackling the challenge of capturing airborne pathogens, such as COVID, Influenza, RSV, common cold and others, that can spread airborne-transmitted diseases [1,2]. Both technologies pull the air from one location to another within the indoor space: depending on whether it is an HVAC system or an air purifier, the air is pulled to either an HVAC air return or that of an air intake of an air purifier, thus potentially infecting others [3]. This study presents a proprietary, multiple patent-protected Air-Clenz™ technology platform that efficiently and quickly captures and purifies the exhaled air from each indoor occupant (in the form of a breath, cough, sneeze), before it disperses in the room atmosphere, and releases the purified air back into the venue, all within 5 seconds. Air-Clenz™ technology can be either built into a computer monitor or laptop, or can be attached as a retrofit, aftermarket peripheral, to existing monitors and laptops. Moreover, Air-Clenz™ system for classroom desks has been developed, which permits seated students to easily see and correspond with their teachers, while the system quickly captures and cleans air exhaled by the students and the surrounding general room air and releases it back as clean air as 99%+ free of pathogens, dust, smoke and other pollutants. The Clean Air Changes per Hour (ACH) is increased over 300 % depending on the number of Air-Clenz™ units utilized in the indoor venue. For a classroom of 20 students and a teacher, for instance, the ACH increases from 3 (assumed this is provided with the existing classroom HVAC) to ACH ~ 10, which is well-above than the recommended ideal ACH ~ 6 by Harvard T.H. Chan Public School of Health. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model study proved that more than 95% of aerosols and droplets exhaled by the indoor occupants are being captured by the Air-Clenz™-enabled computer monitors, laptops or desks while the room noise level is below 35 dB. Air-Clenz™ technology is a versatile cost-effective platform that can lead to a significant reduction of the cross-infection risk in the current COVID-19 pandemic, but also a solution for minimizing any future airborne-transmitted diseases in confined multi-occupant indoor venues. Moreover, the exhaled-air-capturing-and-purification system enables better indoor air quality, which will result in better cognitive functions, performance, productivity, and happiness of the indoor occupants [4].
Keywords:
Coronavirus; Infectious Diseases; Respiratory Diseases; Risk Assessment; exhaled air; cross-infection risk; cognitive functions;References:
[1] Wang C.C., Pratner K.A., Sznitman J., Jimenez J.L., Lakdawala S.S., Tufekci Z. and Marr L.C. 2021. Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses, Science 373, eabd9149.[2] Allen J.G., and Ibrahim A.M. 2021. Indoor Air Changes and Potential Implications for SARS-CoV-2 Transmission, JAMA, 325(20): 2112-2113.
[3] Walkinshaw DS and Horstman RH (2023), Covid 19 and beyond: a procedure for HVAC systems to address infectious aerosol illness transmission. Front. Built Environ. 9:999126.
[4] Allen J. G., MacNaughton P., Satish U., Santanam S., Vallarino J., and Spengler J.D. 2015. Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments, Environmental Health Perspectives, volume 124, number 6, 805.