Page 43 - Climate Control News Aug-Sep 2020

Filter with heating element
MEDISTAR CORPORATION AND research- ers from the University of Houston and Texas have developed a HVAC system filter, made from nickel foam, which they claim can trap and in- stantly kill 99.8 per cent of the coronavirus re- sponsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biodefense indoor air protection system, currently under beta-testing at the InterConti- nental Hotel Houston Medical Centre, will soon go into commercial production. It can then be custom-fitted to existing heating and cooling equipment in all types of HVAC systems in build- ings, planes and ships.
The new filter, which in retrofits is inserted be- tween the existing filter and the heating and cooling elements, distinguishes itself from a HEPA filter.
Director for the Texas Centre for Supercon- ductivity at the University of Houston, Zhifeng Ren, said HEPA filters only trap the virus. “The biodefense filter is better than a high-efficiency
fibre filter because it kills the virus, mak- ing any filter changes and disposal much safer for maintenance workers,” Ren said.
The virus can’t survive temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade. That led to the idea of a filter with an integral heating element. Ren suggested using nickel foam because it met several key requirements: it is porous, allowing the flow of air. And it is electrically conductive, which allowed it to be heated. It is also flexible.
“Nothing can survive biologically” be- cause the filter is heated to 200 degrees C to kill the pathogens,” Ren said.
The researchers report that virus tests at the Galveston National Laboratory found 99.8 per cent of the novel SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was killed in a single pass through a filter made from commercially availa- ble nickel foam heated to 200 degrees C. The fil- ter also killed 99.9 per cent of the anthrax spores
Research tests have been so successful air purifiers are now under development.
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Indoor Air Quality
trapped by the filter in tests at the lab run by the University of Texas (UT) Medical Branch.
Custom retrofits to HVAC systems would cost about $US1,000 per tonne of HVAC, accord- ing to Garrett Peel, Ren's co-lead investigator and executive vice president of Medistar. Mobile air purifiers are also under development.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020 43