While wearing masks and maintaining social distancing are definitely an imperative right now, an experimental new air filter could help limit the spread of COVID-19. The device is claimed to kill the virus that causes the disease, by heating it.
The prototype filter was designed by scientists from the University of Houston, the Houston-based Medistar Corporation, and the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston.
It incorporates commercially available nickel foam which is electrically conductive and flexible, plus it’s porous enough to allow air to flow through. In order to increase the electrical resistivity of the foam, and thus the amount that it heats up when an electrical current is run through it, the material is folded into multiple compartments that are connected by wires.
As a result, when a current is applied, the foam reaches a temperature of about 200 ºC (392 ºF) – this is more than hot enough to instantly kill the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. In fact, in lab tests, the filter reportedly eradicated 99.8 percent of such viruses that were aerosolized and passed through it. What’s more, it also killed 99.9 percent of anthrax spores under the same conditions.
Because the foam is efficiently heated from within, as opposed to requiring a less-direct external heater, it is believed that air conditioners shouldn’t have to work too hard in order to offset the filter’s air-heating effect. It does reportedly meet the requirements for conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Plans call for the device to initially be rolled out in high-priority venues such as hospitals, schools, and public transit vehicles. Medistar may later introduce a desk-top model, that could be utilized in the user’s more immediate surroundings.
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Ben Coxworth
