N.B Company Develops Portable Air Cleaner To Fight Covid-19
SAINT JOHN – A New Brunswick-based company wants to help small businesses and schools reduce the spread of Covid-19 with its new product.
Atlantic Air Cleaning Specialists has designed a wall-mounted air cleaner that uses bipolar ionization technology to deactivate the DNA of the Covid-19 virus in the air, making it so it can’t replicate and therefore infect anyone. The technology has a deactivation rate of 99.4 percent for Covid-19 in 30 minutes.
Bipolar ionization technology can also be implemented in any building’s HVAC system. But not all buildings have an HVAC system that can easily be tied into. This inspired the company to design a portable air cleaner.
“The main thing we’re concerned about today is the pathogens. We have a number of kids going back to school … and we’ve got people who are working in businesses and no one’s really addressing the air (quality),” says Robert Milne, general manager of Atlantic Air Cleaning Specialists.
“Everybody is wearing masks, everybody is cleaning surfaces … but there’s nothing out there that’s actively cleaning 24/7, even when there are patrons in the building.”
Atlantic Air Cleaning Specialists licenses it bipolar ionization technology from an American company called Global Plasma Solutions. The goal of using in a portable air cleaner is so buildings without proper HVAC systems, like some schools, restaurants and small businesses, can deactivate any Covid-19 in the air.
“A lot of the classrooms in New Brunswick don’t have any air handling. It’s static heat or maybe it’s an old boiler system,” says Milne. “Some restaurants may not have air handling. They may have an exhaust in the kitchen, or a mini-split, which is just recirculating the same air.”
Right now, a United States-based company makes the units, but they’re working on finding an Atlantic Canadian manufacturer.
“Eventually, we want these things made here in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, somewhere in the Maritimes,” says Milne.
With most of the focus on containing the spread of Covid-19 concentrated on wearing masks and physical distancing, Milne said air quality isn’t something many are thinking about, because air isn’t something people can physically see.
Around the world places like hospitals and metro transit systems are starting to use the technology and Atlantic Air Cleaning Specialists is working to get more places in the region using it too.
“It’s relatively new and people are not aware of it. We’re working with [the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure] for both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for the school systems, municipalities. We’ve got a couple of hospitals who had just had it tendered in their process for their air handling units in Newfoundland,” says Milne.
“We’re just cracking the surface. We’re trying to get the information out there. It’s the age-old issues we’ve had even before this: ‘If I can’t see it, then I’m really not too concerned about it.’ “
The units are now available for purchase starting at $3,000, with the price going up with the amount of square footage you’d like to cover. There’s a possibility to export the units across North America, but right now, they’re focusing on the regional market.
“Our focus is Atlantic Canada to let people know that we got a solution that they can address their air and make it safe and here’s the solution,” says Milne.
Though concerns around air quality and Covid-19, and the effectiveness of bipolar ionization has been covered in the media over the last several months, it hasn’t reached the consciousness of the general public. Milne predicts that will soon change.
“In the next year, you’re going to see a lot of talk about bipolar ionization, because it’s the natural progression of how we’re going to address the air that we breathe. They’re going to be putting these on planes. They’re already being put into hospitals. It is the most effective solution for air cleaning.”