LIFFE: Light Induced Fluorescence For the Environment

LIFFE：光诱导荧光对环境的影响

• 批准号: 91417
• 金额: $ 8.18万
• 依托单位: IS-INSTRUMENTS LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=91417
• 关键词: LIFFE; Light; Induced; Fluorescence; Environment

Two large elements of improving the UK's sustainability and drive towards net zero are energy use and waste reduction. A challenge seen throughout multiple industries returning to work after lockdown has been a dramatic loss in productivity and increased waste production resulting from increased cleaning regimes and PPE use. Currently, these are tolerated as necessary steps, but these are not environmentally sustainable long-term, especially for an economy pushing for clean growth.An ability to 'see' the current virus, Covid-19 and future zoonotic viruses in workplaces would enable industries to continue to operate safely during pandemics, reducing the severity of lockdowns, remove unnecessary cleaning, resulting in productivity gains, reduce energy wastage and chemical usage, plus allow targeted use for new, energy-hungry decontamination methods (deep-UV). This ability would also improve the sustainability of PPE, seen as a necessity in the NHS. The NHS produces a huge amount of waste, which is not able to be re-used or recycled and instead contributes to airborne pollution through incineration or watercourse/table pollution through landfills. If PPE could be re-employed then this would save scarce resources, both energy, and materials, reduce plastic waste and not lead to the acute shortages experienced during the first pandemic wave. Critical to this is the lack of any instantaneous means to determine if biological contamination has taken place and whether it is still present after cleaning is performed such as via deep-UV irradiation to destroy the virus nucleic acid. There is no currently acceptable method of quality control of cleaning reusable PPE. The ability to 'see' dangerous contamination would thus be an enabling technology. Similarly, armed with a handheld device, cleaning staff could also employ such imaging systems to inspect sources of contamination which are well-known such as sluices where such infections can linger, and complete adequate targeted disinfection.LIFFE is a feasibility project to examine the potential of spectral fluorescence to be employed to detect biological material within an indoor environment, specifically on PPE visors, hospital consumables and, ultimately, in airborne droplets. Furthermore, LIFFE will examine the feasibility of detection specificity for Covid-19, ultimately to be deployed as part of a hand-held detection system.

提高英国的可持续性和推动净零增长的两大要素是能源使用和减少废物。在封锁后重返工作岗位的多个行业面临的一个挑战是，由于清洁制度和个人防护用品使用量的增加，生产率大幅下降，废物产生增加。目前，这些是可以容忍的必要步骤，但从环境角度来看，这些并不是长期可持续的，尤其是对于一个推动清洁增长的经济体。能够在工作场所‘看到’当前的病毒、新冠肺炎和未来的人畜共患病病毒，将使各行业能够在大流行期间继续安全运营，降低封锁的严重程度，清除不必要的清洁，从而提高生产率，减少能源浪费和化学品使用，并允许有针对性地使用新的、耗能的净化方法(深紫外线)。这种能力还将提高个人防护装备的可持续性，这在英国国民健康保险制度中被视为一种必需品。英国国民健康保险制度产生了大量的废物，这些废物不能再利用或再循环，反而会通过焚烧或通过垃圾填埋场造成水道/餐桌污染而造成空气污染。如果PPE能够重新使用，那么这将节省稀缺的资源，包括能源和材料，减少塑料垃圾，并不会导致第一次大流行期间经历的严重短缺。关键是缺乏任何即时手段来确定是否发生了生物污染，以及在进行清理后是否仍然存在生物污染，例如通过深紫外光照射摧毁病毒核酸。目前还没有可接受的清洁可重复使用PPE的质量控制方法。因此，“看到”危险污染的能力将是一项使能技术。同样，有了手持设备，清洁人员也可以使用这种成像系统来检查众所周知的污染源，如可能存在此类感染的水闸，并完成足够的有针对性的消毒。LIFFE是一个可行性项目，旨在研究光谱荧光用于检测室内环境中的生物材料的潜力，特别是在个人防护用品面罩、医院消耗品上，并最终在空气中的微滴中。此外，LIFFE将研究新冠肺炎检测特异性的可行性，最终将其部署为手持检测系统的一部分。