Summary:
Testing of EcoQuest’s Fresh Air Technology has
been performed over an 18 month period at the
Center for Health-Related Aerosol Studies in the
Department of Environmental Health at the
University of Cincinnati under the direction of
Dr. Sergey Grinshpun, Professor.
Testing included two technologies used in the
Fresh Air system; Negative Ionization and
Photocatalysis (an innovative proprietary
Photocatalytic Reactor called Radiant Catalytic
Ionization).
Each technology was evaluated independently:
-
Fresh Air
Ionization technology was able to reduce
airborne particles from indoor air by up to
250 times over natural decay (gravity)
-
Fresh Air
Radiant Catalytic Ionization (RCI) was able to
inactivate approximately 90% of airborne
microorganisms in less than 60 minutes. The
microorganisms tested were MS2 Virus and B.
Subtilis (used as a surrogate for Anthrax).
Dr. Grinshpun also concluded that the
combination of the two technologies provided a
much more significant reduction of airborne
biocontaminants than either of the two
technologies working independently. This
conclusion validates the synergistic effect of
Fresh Air’s multiple technology strategy.
About the Author:
Dr. Grinshpun is one of the most respected
scientists in this important field of Aerosol
Studies. Through his career, Dr. Grinshpun
authored or co-authored about 390 scientific
publications, including 120+ original articles
in peer-reviewed journals, 90 book chapters and
full proceeding papers, as well as about 180
conference abstracts. He has served as a
reviewer, panel member or consultant to several
federal agencies and professional associations
nationally and internationally as well as for
major companies and research institutions. He
has also served on the Editorial Boards of four
journals with international circulation. Dr.
Grinshpun’s accomplishments in aerosol research
were recognized through the International
Smoluchowski Award from the European Aerosol
Assembly (1996, The Netherlands), the AIHA
Outstanding Aerosol Paper Award (1997, USA), and
the David L. Swift Memorial Award (2001, USA).
He also received two John M. White Awards from
AIHA (1997, 1998, USA) for his contribution to
respiratory protection studies and Best Practice
Award from the US Department of HUD (2000) for
his studies of leaded particles in indoor air.
About the University:
University
of Cincinnati is one of America’s foremost
Universities for Environmental Health.
About the Testing:
The testing by Dr. Grinshpun and his team
focused on controlling aerosol contaminants in
the indoor air through the application of two
technology strategies:
-
Particle Concentration Reduction due to
Unipolar Ion Emission
-
Microbial Inactivation due to the
Photocatalytic reaction promoted by a
Photocatalytic process called RCI (Radiant
Catalytic Ionization)
The Results:
The paper concludes that the utilization of two
mechanisms; ionization and oxidation, provide
for significantly less exposure to potentially
harmful contaminates in the air than either
mechanism independently.
This conclusion is supported by showing ion
induced air cleaning removes about 80% of viable
airborne pathogens from a room air in 30 min,
and the RCI-induced photoxidation inactivates
about 90% of the remaining airborne
microorganisms. The combination of both
mechanisms resulted in an overall aerosol
exposure reduction after 30 min by a factor of
about 50, or an overall reduction/inactivation
of approximately 98%.
The two active contaminants evaluated were:
-
B. subtilis
bacteria
-
MS2 virions
Publication:
This research was peer reviewed and published in
the journal of Environmental Science and
Technology, January 2007, pages 606-612.
