Executive Summary
University
of Cincinnati Test Results
EcoQuest Fresh Air Technology
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.
