I-Corps: Air purification technology using germicidal ultraviolet radiation

I-Corps：利用杀菌紫外线辐射的空气净化技术

• 批准号: 2132293
• 负责人: Nausheen Shah
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Wayne State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2132293&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Air; purification; technology; using

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to bring the public health benefits of hospital grade air purification to a broad customer base, from personal protective equipment (PPE) to room air disinfection. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness and demand for airborne pathogen purification which will likely continue long-term. Currently available solutions, from fitted N-95 masks to powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) are often either too cumbersome, too restricting, too uncomfortable, or too expensive for widespread use. The proposed technology could be used as a module to enhance or to be an alternative to pre-existing PAPRs for industrial markets. Applications requiring high-level air purification have often required cost prohibitive, customized, upper room ultraviolet (UV) germicidal irradiation (UR-UVGI) systems. The proposed technology provides an economical, standard, plug-and-play solution with comparable germicidal efficacy, making hospital-grade air purification practically achievable for a host of public spaces such as schools, offices, restaurants, and transportation hubs.This I-Corps project will further develop an ultraviolet (UV) based air disinfection technology which amplifies UV-C radiation to germicidal levels capable of purifying flowing air. The UV-C is generated using light emitting diode (LED) sources to prevent harmful by-products, while providing radiation doses that maximize damage to pathogen nucleic acids. The current level of air disinfection is governed not only by the incident radiation but by the residence time distribution of air in the irradiated zone. Inhomogeneities in radiation or airflow cause a significant bottleneck in disinfection efficiency. Further, the radiation incident on the flowing air needs to be sufficient, given the power limitations of UV-C LEDs. The proposed project uses a number of cavities, with particular geometrical and reflective properties, to provide amplified, uniform incident radiation and mixing conditions to allow for integrated and serial disinfection, ameliorating current issues. A collection of disinfecting cavities can be configured to accommodate the required level of air disinfection or the clean air delivery rate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将医院级空气净化的公共卫生效益带给广泛的客户群，从个人防护设备（PPE）到室内空气消毒。COVID-19大流行增加了对空气传播病原体净化的认识和需求，这可能会长期持续下去。目前可用的解决方案，从装配的N-95面罩到动力空气净化器（PAPR），对于广泛使用来说通常太麻烦、太限制、太不舒适或太昂贵。拟议的技术可用作一个模块，以加强或替代工业市场现有的考绩制度。需要高水平空气净化的应用通常需要成本高昂的定制的上室紫外线（UV）杀菌照射（UR-UVGI）系统。该技术提供了一种经济、标准、即插即用且杀菌效果相当的解决方案，使学校、办公室、餐馆和交通枢纽等公共场所的医院级空气净化实际上可以实现。I-Corps项目将进一步开发基于紫外线（UV）的空气消毒技术，该技术将UV-C辐射放大到能够净化流动空气的杀菌水平。UV-C是使用发光二极管（LED）源产生的，以防止有害的副产品，同时提供最大限度地破坏病原体核酸的辐射剂量。目前的空气消毒水平不仅取决于入射辐射，还取决于辐照区空气的停留时间分布。辐射或气流的不均匀性导致消毒效率的显著瓶颈。此外，考虑到UV-C LED的功率限制，入射到流动空气上的辐射需要足够。拟议的项目使用了一些腔体，具有特定的几何和反射特性，以提供放大的，均匀的入射辐射和混合条件，以允许集成和串行消毒，改善当前的问题。一组消毒腔可以配置为适应所需的空气消毒水平或清洁空气输送率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。