Coronavirus Technology Solutions
September 16, 2021

Opportunities in Indoor Air Quality Monitoring, Purification and Control

Belimo Expands Indoor Air Quality Product Offerings

Polaron® F10+ is a Real-Time Bioaerosol Sensor

Belimo Says Outside Air is Not Necessarily the Best Solution and Recommends Zoned Temperature Control

Unproven Air Purification Equipment Continues to be Installed in Schools

Making Musical Performances Safer in the Era of COVID-19

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Opportunities in Indoor Air Quality Monitoring, Purification and Control

The Coronavirus has increased awareness of the importance of indoor air quality. The future of the HVAC industry will be considerably different than in pre-COVID. There are new technologies and new solutions developed to meet the COVID threat but with applicability to indoor air long term.

The back issues of CTS are searched by keyword or title. 

New  Technology

Many articles have been devoted  to new masks and mask media  but are not included in this analysis.

There are filter improvements to achieve higher removal efficiencies at the same pressure drop.

One of the challenges is to deal with virus which may be initially captured on a filter but then re-entrained. The reason is droplet evaporation. Filter coatings may be a solution.

The need to measure PM 2.5, VOCs and even CO2 continuously is clear. The continuous measurement of bioaerosols would be a better indicator of the airborne virus risk. The problem is to distinguish between the viable and non-viable particles.

Here are some selected headlines appearing this year.  

Honeywell Develops Filter Coating to Kill COVID

Hydrophobic Air Filter Captures Virus in Droplets

Controversy on Ionizers Continue

PMS Supplies Both Viable and Nonviable Particle Counters

qlAir Interview on a  Holistic Approach to Mitigate COVID

Solutions

There have been many articles on holistic solutions which integrate air flow and filtration and provide the optimum amount of outside air. Major suppliers and consultants are providing guarantees in the form of “seals”  Here are some headlines of articles dealing with solutions.

Daikin Announces Strategic Management Plan "FUSION 25"

Museums Set the Standard for Good Air Quality

Transformational Period for Indoor Air Quality

Universities Need to Consider the Longer Term Safety Practices

Ecolab Provides Seal of Approval for Safety at Six Supermarket Ch

3M Offers Certified Cleanliness Program

Sequentially Cleaner Space Progression

$400 Billion Holistic Clean Air Market

HEPA Room Purifiers in Every Classroom at a Cost of $1 billion

Concentrated Contamination Capture is the Route to Cost Effectiveness
Capture Virus and Dust at the  Source - Brake Filter Example

People have to be Viewed As Pollution Sources to be Controlled by a Central System

ISO is Also a Potential Resource in the Safe Bubble Certification

SGS Galson Teams with SafeTraces to Supplement PM with Aerosol Monitoring and Analysis

Certifying Relative Risk Reduction for a Safe Bubble

Clean & SAFE Protocol is a Certification Program by SGS and HRS

Eurofins Tests and Certifies EU Community Masks with Results Published on the Mask Package

Bureau Veritas can Provide Safe Bubble Validation

HVAC, Fan Filter Units, Air Purifiers and Safe Bubbles

Bubble Cleanliness Assured with Proper Monitoring

Honeywell Particulate Monitors can be Used in Clean Bubbles

Belimo Expands Indoor Air Quality Product Offerings

Over the last few years Belimo  has expanded its HVAC related air quality monitoring and control activities.

Last year it purchased Opera Electronics Inc., a Montreal-based (Canada) specialist for air quality and gas sensors.

Belimo successfully entered the sensors market in 2017 by launching a first product offering of innovative pipe and duct sensors for HVAC applications. In 2018, the range was expanded with ultra-sonic flow sensors, in 2019 and 2020 with room sensors that measure indoor air quality.

Facilio, a leading AI-driven property operations & maintenance (O&M) platform, and Belimo,  announced a collaboration to enhance the buildings industry by delivering connected and sustainable environments.

Belimo sensors, control valves, and damper actuators for HVAC applications meet the ever-evolving needs of connected buildings and provide easy access to the devices' valuable data. With system integration into the building management systems, every Belimo IoT device has an additional digital identity that offers an open interaction in a digital ecosystem. This digital identity provides a dynamic platform for implementing new applications with different partners at every integration level. 

Belimo has standalone airflow measurement and control actuators with digital communications for rotary, linear, and induct applications. Select actuators have pressure independent control characteristics combined with an integrated differential pressure sensor to calculate and deliver designed flow regardless of pressure fluctuations in the system.

The actuator communicates directly with the Building Automation System (BAS) using BACnet, Modbus, or MP-Bus. Select models offer Near Field Communication (NFC) for quick programming, commissioning, and troubleshooting, leading to optimal system performance. The actuator with industry-standard digital communications is the perfect solution for integration in constant or variable air volume systems, or open-loop applications.

Polaron® F10+ is a Real-Time Bioaerosol Sensor

The Polaron F10+ provides real-time detection of airborne biological threats and other aerosolized anomalies. It rapidly and reliably detects all four classes of biological agents (spores, toxins, viruses, and bacteria) at low concentrations. By combining state-of-the-art patented polarized elastic light scattering and laser-induced fluorescence, Polaron detects small particles with weak fluorescence properties down to 0.5 microns

Polaron monitors air continuously to provide an early-warning of potential aerosol threats. It transmits information as a first-tier “trigger” in a networked system for a variety of applications:

·         Building protection

·         Mass-transit security

·         Special-event monitoring

·         Force and base protection

Claimed benefits are

·         Best-in-class sensitivity – detects singlet particles in all agent classes (spore, bacteria, virus, toxin)

·         Fast response – informs of threats in real-time

·         High confidence – extensive US Government testing

·         More coverage – affordable, compact, lightweight

Belimo Says Outside Air is Not Necessarily the Best Solution and Recommends Zoned Temperature Control

Belimo helped to retrofit the interior of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for use as a field hospital and has some useful advice relative to the use of outside air to minimize the COVID risk.

The current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommend reducing disease transmission from airborne particles by increasing the outdoor air ventilation and filtration efficiency. These recommendations are vague and do not consider the location of the facility. For example, a building in NYC should not be designed the same as a building in Florida. The climates are drastically different.

CDC and ASHRAE are recommending up to 100% Outdoor Air (OA) to dilute the air. This will have a significant energy impact as energy costs will increase by 50-100%.

Why? Outdoor air during the warm weather months tends to hold more moisture, so increasing the amount of outdoor air intake will ultimately increase the amount of relative humidity in the controlled space. ASHRAE Standard 8 recommends occupied indoor spaces be limited to a maximum dew point temperature of 60°F, which translates to a dry-bulb temperature of between 72°F and 78°F with a maximum relative humidity of 60%.

Beyond comfort, the increase in relative humidity above 60% increases the formation of mold and mildew, which ultimately creates an increased health risk to the occupants. Continued high interior relative humidity levels can cause building and property damage and make for an uncomfortable environment.

This results in additional mechanical cooling as the space thermostats setpoints will be lowered, so the mechanical air conditioning will run longer to remove the excess moisture. In the past, it has been commonplace to locate a single humidity sensor (dry bulb sensor) in the interior to control the relative humidity.

A solution to the single relative humidity approach would be the addition of a relative humidity, temperature, and occupancy sensor in each zone of the interior. This would allow the control system to be programmed to redirect air from partially occupied or unoccupied spaces to maximize the ventilation in the occupied zones and ultimately, optimize the system's energy efficiency. Individual zone controls can ensure the recommended dew point temperatures are maintained to prevent the growth of mold and mildew while maintaining occupant comfort.

Changing seasons, during cold weather months, the increase of outdoor air ventilation to 100% will cause an increase in heating since the mechanical equipment will be required to temper the outdoor air intake to maintain the required space conditions. Again, the use of zoned temperature control will maintain comfort levels with an eye toward energy efficiency.

Of course, the use of economizer controls to take advantage of 'free' cooling and maximize the airflow should never be discouraged. Still, it is essential in today's COVID-19 environment to utilize the available options on the market to stay safe while acknowledging the increased cost of energy.

Unproven Air Purification Equipment Continues to be Installed in Schools

We have been writing about the purchase of questionable purification equipment by many schools.  Greenwire is documenting additional examples.

As students head back to school amid a surge in coronavirus cases — even among children — indoor air quality experts fear school districts could be buying unproven technology in hopes of combating the virus, and possibly emitting harmful pollutants instead.

At issue are devices called needlepoint bipolar ionizers, which send positive and negative ions through air ducts. The ions act like magnets, attracting airborne particles and clumping them together so that they either fall to the ground or are easier for filters to catch.

Companies that market the devices claim they achieve 99% viral reduction, but independent experts who have studied the technology have found it doesn’t have nearly that same success rate in real-world classrooms.

At the same time, independent testing of some devices has found they emit harmful byproducts like volatile organic compounds and even ozone, a gas that irritates breathing and is a component of smog.

For that reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages ventilation and filtration instead, telling consumers to “exercise caution and do their homework” before purchasing needlepoint bipolar ionizers and similar air cleaners.

Other nations have gone further, with the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation saying in a recent report that “public funds should not be used” on technology that uses ions to clean the air. California, too, has banned selected devices known to produce ozone.

But that hasn’t stopped U.S. schools from buying the products, which have some powerful boosters. Two Trump administration health officials — Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House coronavirus response coordinator, and former CDC chief Dr. Robert Redfield — have joined separate companies that produce bipolar ionizing technology.

Some of the air cleaners manufactured by ActivePure Technology, which Birx joined, have been shown to emit ozone and are banned in California.

The company did not respond to E&E News’ request for comment but told Kaiser Health News in March that air cleaners that emit ozone account for 5% of the company’s nearly $500 million in annual sales.

Birx also told the news service that “the concerns you have raised are legitimate” for other companies selling the technology, but said she had confidence in ActivePure.

Of course, this isn’t the first school year in which districts will have to contend with the coronavirus as they educate students in person. But it is the first full academic year since the CDC acknowledged that the coronavirus is unlikely to spread on surfaces. So schools that had been investing in extra cleaning products are now being told to focus on air transmission.

At the same time, school districts have seen a boost in federal cash from congressional coronavirus relief packages — with the American Rescue Plan alone including an additional $122 billion in school aid.

There’s no official tally of how many schools have invested in such technology, but Marwa Zaatari, who sits on the board of the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, has kept a spreadsheet of news reports about the devices and estimates school districts have spent at least $100 million on the technology.

Zaatari blames the CDC for not taking a stronger stance against the technology, noting that school administrators are ill-equipped to assess such new technology, especially in the face of swanky marketing campaigns.

“It really is the Wild West,” she said.

The CDC did not respond to requests for comment.

Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto who has studied the devices, says they don’t all emit harmful byproducts. But most of them aren’t proven to be effective against the coronavirus, either.

“I would estimate about three-fourths of the market is what I call illegitimate devices that are unproven in real environments,” he said. “In general, they are not harmful, but they aren’t particularly helpful, either.”

What’s more concerning to Siegel is that schools may be spending their money on unproven technology rather than tried and true means of cleaning the air: ventilation and filtration.

Indoor air quality experts and the CDC alike have urged schools to combat the coronavirus by increasing the flow of outdoor air into their buildings and updating heating, ventilation and filtration (HVAC) system filters to something called MRV13. When upgrading HVAC systems isn’t possible, or when school buildings are too old to even have air ducts, they are being told to use HEPA filters in classrooms.

Both MRV13 and HEPA filters would help trap not just the coronavirus but also particulate matter or fine airborne dust or soot.

“When we think about big wildfire smoke events, which we are having more and more frequently, smoke events increase air pollution outside, and that just permeates the indoor air,” said Delphine Farmer, an atmospheric chemist at Colorado State University. “One of the best things you can do in that scenario is to increase your HVAC filter or bring in classroom HEPA filters.”

Though the coronavirus is rightly receiving school administrators’ attention right now, Farmer said, “improving ventilation and filtration in school buildings will have positive impacts down the line when we move into the future.”

“They are absolute win-win scenarios,” she said.

Investing in and upgrading existing HVAC systems could bring huge gains beyond just coronavirus safety.

Before the pandemic, facilities upgrades were among the lowest priorities for school districts, behind academics and security concerns, even though research has shown that indoor air pollution contributes to lower test scores.

A 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office found that an estimated 41% of school districts needed to replace their HVAC systems — amounting to 36,000 schools with indoor air problems. Those could include too much particulate matter coming in from the outside, as well as an accumulation of carbon dioxide from students exhaling in stuffy classrooms.

One Florida school the GAO visited before the pandemic had installed new cameras as part of an updated security system, even as its HVAC system was in such disrepair that maintenance staff had to climb to the roof every day to adjust the air conditioning.

Zaatari says improving HVAC systems and filters could help protect students from COVID-19, as well as pollution from wildfires and traffic. She noted that the outdoor air intakes for HVAC systems at urban schools are often located near bus stops and can suck in exhaust gases. Schools are generally also located near highways and other main thoroughfares — hot spots of traffic pollution.

“When we talk about the filters now, people think about it being for COVID in the indoor air that gets recirculated, but it’s also good to filter the outdoor air,” she said.

Anisa Heming, director of the Center for Green Schools, said she is concerned that schools purchasing unproven bipolar ionization devices are missing a huge opportunity to make much-needed improvements to HVAC systems.

“The thing that is really killing me about it is that we do have strategies that are actually very well proven at cleaning air from all sorts of threats,” she said. “It is upsetting that people are missing the chance to invest in them.”

https://www.eenews.net/articles/schools-defense-against-covid-19-could-boost-air-pollution/

Making Musical Performances Safer in the Era of COVID-19

One of the many aspects of “normal” life that SARS-CoV-2 took away was the enjoyment of live musical performances. With the easing of lockdowns and restrictions in many parts of the world, performers can entertain audiences once again, but concerns about spreading the virus remain. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Environmental Au have studied aerosol production from playing wind instruments, singing and acting, allowing them to develop recommendations to minimize COVID transmission.

Early in the pandemic, COVID-19 outbreaks from choir performances indicated that singing carries a potential infection risk, but less is known about the risks of airborne infection from wind instruments. To help keep performers, audiences and music students safe, Tehya Stockman, Shelly Miller and colleagues wanted to examine aerosol production and flow from various musical activities, as well as test different mitigation strategies.

The researchers examined the extent and velocity of air jets, or plumes, coming from singers’ and actors’ mouths and from wind instruments, such as the flute, clarinet, trumpet and saxophone. They also measured airborne respiratory particles, or aerosols, and carbon dioxide levels emanating from the performers. They found that aerosol concentrations coming from the bell of a clarinet were comparable to singing. Placing a surgical mask over a singer’s face or over the clarinet bell substantially reduced plume velocities and lengths and decreased aerosol concentrations in front of the masks. The team then used these measurements to model viral transmission in indoor and outdoor environments, finding that the lowest risk of airborne COVID-19 infection occurred at less than 30 minutes of exposure indoors and less than 60 minutes outdoors. These findings could help musical rehearsals and performances resume in a safer manner for musicians and audiences, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from an international coalition of more than 95 musical organizations.