Under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsorship, Novatron, Inc. has developed a unique technology that can be used to protect facilities and personnel against airborne biological organisms.
Novatron's air sterilization technology is based on a novel, very high intensity, Advanced UV System (AUVS) that rapidly and effectively destroys biological agents. The UV intensity produced by the AUVS is 1000 times that produced by conventional low power UV germicidal systems. As a result, the system is uniquely effective. The sterilization effects obtained are significantly greater than those achievable with conventional UV systems or HEPA filters.
The AUVS systems are designed for installation in the HVAC system of a building, or portion of a building, to sterilize air flowing in the building's air ducts, or provide sterile air for selected parts of the building.. When used to treat air in an air duct, the pressure drop created by the AUVS is negligible and the operating costs are very low.
APPLICATIONS
- Sterile air for medical, pharmaceutical, and food manufacturing
- Protection against airborne microbes: Cold, flu, SARS and bird flu viruses – mold-legionella
- Sterile air for hospitals, surgery suites, critical care facilities
- Protection for government and military facilities.
Pharmaceutical and medical applications include air purification for hospitals (operating rooms, oncology units, bone marrow transplant facilities, isolation rooms, etc.), air sterilization for pharmaceutical and other manufacturing clean rooms; protection against airborne microbes such as cold, flu, SARS and bird flu viruses – mold – legionella; and air treatment for commercial buildings to improve indoor air quality. Novatron recently installed AUVS systems in a major pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico.
Defense applications include protecting military, government and civilian facilities worldwide against bio- terrorism attacks. Large AUVS systems have been installed at the Pentagon in Washington D.C..
Extensive laboratory testing and independent third party government sponsored testing shows that the technology is highly effective for destroying Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus endospores that are significantly more resistant to UV than anthrax spores. Up to 7 orders of magnitude (7 logs, or 99.99999%) kill of B. subtilis and B. pumilus spores have been demonstrated with the AUVS technology.
Based on the AUVS technology, Novatron has developed a line of equipment for air sterilization, the BioProtector™ product line. (See Products page). The AUVS technology is scalable from small units suitable for treating airflow volumes of less than 200 cfm to large systems with airflow volumes greater than 100,000 cfm. BioProtector™ products built to date span the range from 300 cfm to 60,000 cfm
Novatron's AUVS technology differs significantly from conventional low power germicidal UV technology. Low power germicidal UV systems have been advocated for many years for treating air in buildings. However, they produce low photon flux, and consequently, are not very effective. Such conventional low power UV systems provide only very low microbial reduction levels and require long exposure time for microbial kill. Because of their low photon flux, large systems with a very large number of lamps would be required to give exposure levels needed for even low kill of microorganisms in high velocity airflow in an air duct. The AUVS uses an innovative patent-pending flux density multiplication technology to produce very high UV intensities with only modest input electrical power.
The operating power required for the AUVS is small. For example, a 2000 cfm system providing 6 logs (99.9999%) kill of UV resistant Bacillus subtilis endospores (significantly more resistant than anthrax spores or smallpox virus) requires less than 1500 watts of operating power. This is approximately the power consumed by a household hair dryer.
In summary, the AUVS technology provides a new means of effectively and efficiently sterilizing air and assuring the protection of buildings from biological contaminants. The technology is energy efficient and acquisition and operating costs are low.
To obtain a copy of a technical white paper about Novatron’s AUVS technology, Click Here.
Novatron conducts funded research and technology development for US government and commercial organizations. This work is focused in areas of key expertise such as intense UV technology; infra-red (IR) technology, optics, lasers and light technology; physics and electrical engineering.
For example, Novatron has developed technology for use of IR lasers and IR optics for detection of chemical agents. Novatron has also developed innovative applications of UV and pulsed UV technology in combination with photo catalysts for destruction of chemicals.
