The AirScout NPBI may provide the solution to eliminating coronavirus from the air and surfaces in public places and provide more confidence for individuals returning to work, classrooms and public gatherings.

Dave Ogle is the founder of Tech-UV, which came about recently during the pandemic, after a 25-year career in HVAC maintenance from a family-owned business which has installed UV-C lights in systems for years. He says his company teamed up with North Carolina-based Global Plasma as the pandemic presented this year to conduct research into how effective ionization could be in killing human coronavirus particles in the air in buildings.

“The ionization systems were very effective against viruses, but they had to be at a very high level of ionic density. It found that it was really effective at 27,000 ions per CC of air,” he said.

The process utilizes “needlepoint bipolar” or NPBI technology, sending negative and positive static plasma ions into the air. Ogle says a human coronavirus test conducted in March cleaned up virtually all surface contaminants within an hour. In June, a second test was performed with Aviation Clean Air which proved even more efficient.

“So we bumped it up over 30,000 ions per CC and we had an efficacy rate above 99 percent within 30 minutes,” he said.

Ogle says he’s hoping that public schools will implement the technology to get kids and teachers back in the classroom worry-free.

“School from home? We knew it was going to be a failure from day one. Look what’s happened. Teachers are quitting, kids are frustrated at home, they want to be with their friends and I think pressure is going to brought to bear on that market.  We’re hoping to get the attention of the school districts,” he said.

The process of getting the equipment installed is fairly simple, says Ogle.

“We can set up a classroom with the wall mount AirScout NPBI in less than one hour and begin the ionizing process to get the room air above 30,000 ions/cc where you would have a virtually virus-free environment in about 30 minutes.  Viruses cannot live with such an ionic charge density, and the air is perfectly safe to breathe.  This protects both the air and surfaces.  Every desk, chair, pencil everywhere in the room.  We have the testing equipment we can bring into the classroom and prove the ionic density, and we already have all EPA and UL approval certifications for no Ozone production.” he said.

Courtesy image

Earlier this month, Kansas Education Commissioner Dr. Randy Watson began urging districts to develop plans to bring kids back to in-person class learning as soon as possible. USD 383 Manhattan/Ogden, which has operated in a hybrid model since Aug. 26, will continue through the end of October. The school board plans to vote on a possible proposal Oct. 21 to move toward the traditional 5-day in person schedule.

Tech-UV has already completed a school building project in Wichita led by iSi Environmental as the lead contractor.

Ogle said that “the people at iSi Environmental are brilliant.  The have analyzed the testing data and it was a no brainer to get it into the Independent School Buildings to protect the safety of kids and faculty.”

Ogle says the airline industry is starting to utilize similar technology already. Tech-UV has also secured a contract with a Canadian company called Giesecke-Devrient, which prints the Canadian dollar.

“They see it as a very high building security technology because you can’t have people working from home, printing the Canadian dollar. That’s not going to happen. There are a lot of industries that can’t happen working from home. This is the target market we’re looking at, and why Children’s Mercy Hospital is implementing it with Tech-UV right now as well.” he said.  That project is being headed by Dr. Mark Connelly who saw the value in using NPBI technology.

“We presented the solutions we have tested and experimented with already to the Department of Defense and were awarded a Federal Research Grant to keep going” he stated.

The Federal Research Grant was awarded on October 15 as a collaboration effort for NSI, Inc of Wichita, MRI Global Lab testing facility and Tech-UV of Lawrence.

“We’re so excited to work with these amazing people.  Dr. Cris Ugolini at NSI Wichita was instrumental in getting the research grant and recognizing the emerging LED UV-C capabilities as well.”

Tech-UV’s AirScout NPBI wall mount can cover up to 4,000 square feet per unit. It only uses three amps of power, which at 13 cents per kilowatt hour would be roughly $28 a month to operate if ran 24 hours a day.

To learn more about the AirScout NBPI wall mounts and this new technology,   visit tech-uv.com

 

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