Concept: Texas technology startup Integrated Viral Protection (IVP) has rolled out a new personal air filtration unit that can kill airborne viruses in a single pass including sub-micron variants causing COVID-19, anthrax spores, allergens, and other harmful respiratory triggers. Demonstrated in CES 2022, the air filtration unit features IVP’s patented ‘catch and kill virus’ technology that can kill airborne viruses. It is designed to reduce person-to-person virus transmission and is ideal for schools, office spaces, mass transit, and other small indoor spaces.
Nature of Disruption: The personal air filtration unit includes a heated foam stainless steel mesh embedded inside a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to kill airborne pathogens instantly and remove these pathogens from the air. The filtration system consists of a pre-filter along with the HEPA filter that effectively removes airborne pathogens. IVP’s technology targets air transmission to eliminate the virus, disinfect the air and reduce a building’s reliance on outside air mix. In so doing it recirculates clean, fresh, and viral-free air that helps conserve energy. It states that its specialized heated filtration filter meets the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards. The patented biodefense indoor air protection system can seemingly destroy SARS-CoV-2 (99.999%), anthrax spores (99.98%), and other airborne pathogens in a single pass. It can prevent the transmission of highly infectious airborne agents in closed environments. IVP boasts that its heated filtration system is the first to show that actual Sars-2-Covid can be destroyed instantly in a single pass, without heating ambient air.
Outlook: HEPA, ultraviolet (UV), photoelectrochemical oxidation (PECO), and other oxidative technologies that claim to mitigate airborne transmission are not effective in clearing SARS-Cov-2 virus other and other airborne pathogens including influenza, rhinovirus, and other pandemic causing biological species instantly. Moreover, they are expensive and require a larger exposure time to be effective that can cause the risk of person-to-person virus transmission in closed environments. IVP claims that its catch and kill virus technology can destroy airborne viruses in a single pass without heating the ambient air. The startup claims that its technology has received independent endorsements from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Argonne National Lab, University of Illinois Chicago, Argonne Laboratory, and National Academy of Science.
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