A physics professor from the University of Houston has developed a nanotech coating designed to allow air filters to capture airborne or aerosolized droplets of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Balancing filtration with air flow is critical to indoor air quality, a key issue as colder weather pushes more people indoors.
Seamus Curran, Physics professor at the University of Houston, has developed a water-based filter coating that is able to capture liquids which encase the virus particles, trapping them on the filter's coating, while still allowing air to flow through unimpeded.
"High-efficiency filters can trap some virus particles but ventilation systems are designed to use specific types of filters. Using a more highly rated filter can require changing or even replacing the ventilation system and would still require a number of passes through the ventilation system to be effective. The filter coating allows ventilation systems to remove the virus during normal operation, without retrofitting or limiting the system's ability to draw fresh air", explains Curran.
The coating has been tested by independent lab Water Lens, which confirmed the treated filter captured the virus while, in comparison, it flowed through untreated filters of the same Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating, which reflects a filter's ability to capture particles of varying sizes.
"The coated filters are currently installed in one public building in New York City", explained Nick Benson, director of communications for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. "They have been tested for static pressure suitability and rated positively".
Meanwhile, Water Lens is currently working on viral detection via wastewater. In fact, pollen and other particles that aren't encapsulated in fluids - in the case of the coronavirus, usually saliva, phlegm and other respiratory fluids - still pass through the filter.
Seamus Curran is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, associate director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute at UH, and an adjunct professor at the Focus Institute at the Technical University of Dublin. He is a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He is commercializing the coating via Curran Biotech, a company he founded to focus on hydrophobic fabric coatings and other products.