Filtration Revenues Could Triple by 2022

M+H Cabin Filters Provide COVID Protection

qlair Identifies, the Air Flow Problem and Provides Solutions to Optimize the Hospital Ventilation.
 

New York State Government Employees want HEPA Filters in Their Buildings

Lack of Air Flow Knowledge has Slowed Acceptance of the Importance of Efficient Masks

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Filtration Revenues Could Triple by 2022

The filtration industry can be proactive and provide solutions to mitigate  COVID or it can be reactive and face the possible consequences of reduced economic activity for years to come. 

The present market is $97 billion and is segmented into seven product areas.

 

The cartridge filter market is $20 billion.    Twenty-five percent is pharmaceutical and health care which will not be negatively impacted by COVID. Fifty percent is in metals, electronics, power, oil and gas and other industries where COVID is lowering activity. Twenty-five percent is in commercial and residential use which could be negatively impacted by acceleration of the pandemic.

Air filtration is a $10 billion market with most areas negatively impacted by COVID. The pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors are the exceptions.  A proactive approach will substantially increase revenues in commercial and residential air filtration.

Fabric filters (air pollution control) represent a $13 billion market which is mostly adversely impacted by COVID. The major purchasers include steel, mining, power, and cement companies.

Liquid filtration is an $8 billion market and includes large filter presses and belt filters used in mining, chemicals, and wastewater.  Most of the applications are negatively impacted by reduced economic activity.

Crossflow membranes (RO, UF, MF) is a $13 billion market with one third of the market in desalination. Pharmaceutical and health care are growing segments.

The mobile filter market is a $30 billion market which is negatively impacted by loss in new automobile production.  Upgrading of cabin air filters to deal with COVID is a minor offsetting factor.

Masks and respirators:  the market for masks was less than than $3 billion at the start of 2020.  Assuming that N80 masks are required in the future and assuming there is a washable version reducing mask cost to $0.25 per person per day and that 2 billion people are using these masks, the daily mask revenue will be $500 million and annual revenue would be $182 billion

With a reactive filtration industry 2022 revenues could be slightly higher based on increased mask sales offsetting  shrinkage in other segments. 

 

With a proactive filtration industry revenues could triple  by 2022. Most of the major filter companies including those who have never been involved with masks are now involved. New media materials can assure increased comfort and efficiency at affordable cost. Use of directional air flow and high efficiency filters can result in efficient COVID mitigation in commercial, residential, and industrial facilities.

The filtration industry needs to be proactive. It has taken six months for WHO to even concede that small COVID aerosols are a major transmission source. Partitions are being mandated without regard to related air turbulence. Governments, suppliers, and the public all need access to the latest insights and developments.  McIlvaine is providing a program entitled Coronavirus Technology Solutions  with this goal in mind. Click here for more information.

For more information on McIlvaine Market Reports in each filtration area click on markets at www.mcilvanecompany.com

Bob McIlvaine can answer your questions.  You can reach him at 847 226 2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com

M+H Cabin Filters Provide COVID Protection

Mann+Hummel  has created unique cabin filters with high particulate efficiency and incorporate gas phase removal and antimicrobial coatings. The potential to monitor air quality and control air flow through the filter adds flexibility to decrease energy consumption or conversely to maximize filtration volume.

It would seem that this capability can be utilized to optimize COVID mitigation. 

Common cabin filters include a particulate filter and frequently also an activated carbon layer. This is also true for the cabin filters from MANN+HUMMEL. The particulate filter layer almost completely separates coarse particles such as dust, pollen and tire debris as well as the smallest, respirable particles such as particulate matter. The layer of activated carbon adsorbs harmful gases, unpleasant odors and ozone almost completely from the air flowing through the system.

But these cabin filters also have a third layer with a special biofunctional coating made from so-called polyphenols. Polyphenols are natural products with an anti-inflammatory effect and are perceived to promote good health. They are present in plants such as green tea and pomegranates and many others and have the ability to adsorb allergens and make them harmless. This mechanism is exploited by MANN+HUMMEL.

The polyphenol coating has an antiallergenic and antimicrobial effect. It protects the driver and vehicle occupants against bacteria, mold fungi and allergens and adsorbs them by up to 100 percent. Growth of mold fungi will decrease by more than 95 percent. This allows us to nip diseases in the bud, and those suffering from allergies can breathe freely.

M+H use different types of activated carbon to filter out gaseous contaminants. The carbon surface is characterized by a very fine pore structure which binds gas molecules. Expertise is based on the ability to combine different activated carbons in a single filter medium. That allows M+H to exactly fine-tune filters and reliably retain the various pollutants. This is particularly true in the case of nitrogen dioxide. Here activated carbon media provide highly effective protection which is validated in field tests and with independent laboratories.

The trend here is towards ever finer filtration. In recent years, the demand for high efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA filters) has risen. These products allow the retention of more than 99.95 percent of all particles. These filters usually find application in clean rooms. In areas with road traffic, they would clog within a short period of time. Therefore, M+H  combines them with a pre-filter to a filter system and fine-tune these to work together.

One major challenge for electric vehicles is to maximize their driving range. Therefore, the energy of the battery should be dedicated for driving and not be used for climate control in the interior of the vehicle.

The intelligent system FreciousSmart allows the air to circulate inside the cabin after it has been heated up once. However, at some point the air does become sticky and damp, and a certain amount of air from the outside is required. The indoor air quality sensor in the system measures the CO₂ content, the air humidity and temperature and determines how much outdoor air is actually required. At the same time, another sensor measures the quality of the outside air and only switches on the respectively required filter. This offers constantly maximum protection for the occupants of the vehicle while maximizing the driving range and enabling the longest change interval for the filter.

qlair Identifies, the Air Flow Problem and Provides Solutions to Optimize the Hospital Ventilation. 

Proper indoor air quality management can save  hospitals thousands in energy every year, while making the indoor environment healthier and increasing employee performance. Savings for hospitals can be immense, as the 2003 CBEC Survey identified that hospitals spend 10 times more on energy than other building types, which can equate to $8.8 billion in energy costs per year. Optimizing the  HVAC system and properly monitoring  indoor air quality can ensure use of the correct filter with the correct scheduling. In addition, knowing when and where the problem areas are can allow the facility to make advanced decisions on ventilation efforts. 

Now with COVID the harm from poor ventilation is greatly increased. The following success story from Mann +Hummel qlair  occurred prior to COVID but shows the process needed to minimize COVID as well as VOCs.

Hospitals, being some of the most at-risk facilities for poor indoor air quality, can have heavy exposure to harmful chemicals and airborne bacteria that cause illness and discomfort. These issues can be solved by proper ventilation and data tracking. In fact, a study done by ASHRAE found indoor air quality that was improved by appropriate ventilation reduced acute respiratory illnesses by up to 76 percent. 

This can be attributed to data collected from the same research, concluding that there was a higher concentration of carbon dioxide and VOCs inside urban hospitals than outdoors. Running the HVAC system properly and monitoring  indoor air quality can allow the facility  to attack these problems at the source in the most cost-efficient manner. 

Recently, qlair worked with a hospital that was in need of indoor air quality and monitoring, due to employee complaints of odor and poor ventilation. The pathology lab team had noticed an unpleasant chemical smell, and there were even tenants from other floors complaining of the strong odor. They needed better insight into the situation and contacted the team at qlair to help. 

First, experts conducted a walk-through of the facility to identify potential sources of the pollutant at work. They look in every area, including storage closets, different sections of the lab, and other parts of the facility to make sure everything follows proper indoor air quality protocol. During this audit, we found the first potential at-risk area, the storage room containing various chemicals.

Based the  assessment, it was clear that the room was not properly ventilated, and chemical containers had been left open or their lids were not tightly shut. This was immediately taken note of and was the first suspect for which the pollution was possible. 

With a lead on the potential problem area, qlair began its installation process. Three sensors were installed – one in the chemical storage room, another in the lab area, and the third in the office area of the facility. It was time to wait and allow for the backend solution to gather data from the sensors, comparing different VOC levels to the different areas of the facility. After a few weeks of letting the data do the work, qlair was able to generate a graph comparing the various pollutant concentrations. The results were most telling.

From the data collected, qlair confirmed that the problem resided within the storage closet. Data showed significantly higher levels of VOC concentration in the storage closet when compared to all other areas, during all times of the day. Other areas that were at problem levels were also identified during this time, although none matched the significance of the storage room.

Given this data, qlair was able to provide an actionable solution to the client, which not only completely eliminated the issue in the storage room, but also returned all areas of the lab to the correct levels of VOC concentration.

Most digital solutions can only set up sensors and gather data, which can let you know when pollutants are at unsafe levels but do not provide actionable insights. qlair identifies, the problem and provides solutions to optimize the building. 

 

New York State Government Employees want HEPA Filters in Their Buildings

One of the state's largest public labor unions is calling on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to require buildings that house state workers to meet the same air-filtration standards that the governor recently said he will impose on large malls and potentially other private-sector businesses.

The Public Employees Federation (PEF) this week called on the Governor's Office of Employee Relations to mandate the installation of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to protect employees returning to offices as New York reemerges from a months-long “pause” on business operations to slow the spread of COVID-19.

If New York state is mandating or recommending these filters for large public spaces, businesses and offices, then New York state should follow its own recommendations and ensure adequate air filtration for its own workers,” PEF President Wayne Spence said in a news release. “You must lead by example, and this is an opportunity for the governor to do that.”

Cuomo last week said large malls would be required to install HEPA filters before they could reopen.

Jason Conwall, a Cuomo spokesman, said filters are already installed in buildings owned and managed by the Office of General Services, which functions as the state's property manager.

Every precaution is being taken to provide state workers with the safe environment they deserve, and buildings owned and managed by the Office of General Services are already using MERV-13 rated filters, have increased the mix of fresh air, and are running HVAC fans before and after work hours — all in accordance with (Centers for Disease Control) and (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) guidance," he said in an emailed statement. "The state is also working with our partners to provide the same in leased office spaces."

The MERV efficiency is far below the most efficient HEPA filters which would be MERV 20 .  the chart below shows the relative efficiency of MERV 13 on particles 0.1 microns in diameter would be around  50%.

 

Lack of Air Flow Knowledge has Slowed Acceptance of the Importance of Efficient Masks

Researchers from China and Australia published a paper linked below which  provides an explanation as to why officials are slow to understand the importance of efficient masks.

They say that it is difficult to explain why public health authorities marginalize the significance of airborne transmission of influenza or coronaviruses, but a possible reason is that it is difficult to directly detect the viruses traveling in the air. Immediately after expiration, the plume carrying the expired viral content is diluted, and as it travels in the air carried by the air flow. In the process, the concentration of the virus does not increase uniformly in the interior environment of the enclosed space, but it is elevated only in the flow (if there is adequate ventilation, which is normally the case in medical facilities or on aircraft) (^{Morawska 2006}). Therefore, sampling for the presence of the virus requires knowledge of the air flow from the infected person, and a sufficiently long sampling period to collect enough copies of the viruses. Both these requirements present major challenges: microbiologists collecting viral samples are not normally experts in building flow dynamics, and practicality prevents long sampling times that would be adequate for the sensitivity of existing viral detection methods (^{Booth et al. 2005}).

The fact that there are no simple methods for detecting the virus in the air does not mean that the viruses do not travel in the air. The above-mentioned retrospective modeling studies explained the transmission of SARS-CoV-1 in 2003 (^{Booth et al., 2005, Li et al., 2005, Olsen et al., 2003, Xiao et al., 2017;12., Yu et al., 2005}). While we do not yet have all the required data in hand, including for example data on the patterns of infections, or specific indoor characteristics where the infections occurred, analysis of the initial pattern of COVID-19 spread in China reveals multiple cases of non-contact transmission, especially in areas outside Wuhan, such as those in Hunan and Tianjin. On numerous cruise ships where thousands of people onboard were infected, many of the infections occurred after the imposition of isolation that confined passengers for the majority of time to their cabins, and limited direct contact, and with hand hygiene carefully obeyed. Was it therefore the ventilation system that spread the airborne virus between the cabins one of the reasons for the infections? There are also hypothesis, that airborne transmission was at least partially responsible for a larger number of infections during a choir, where 45 out of 60 choir members were infected (^{Read 2020}).

Despite the evidence and strong hypotheses, the world appears to be locked in the old way of thinking that only direct contact matters in viral infection spread. It is disconcerting that with all the experience and evidence currently available, when faced with a new viral outbreak of COVID-19, the authorities still fail to acknowledge the airborne pathway of transmission, although many experts in China and other countries have had experience in dealing with SARS.

We predict that this failure to immediately recognize and acknowledge the importance of airborne transmission and to take adequate actions against it will result in additional cases of infection in the coming weeks and months, which would not occur if these actions were taken. The air transmission issue should be taken seriously now, during the course of the epidemic. When the epidemic is over and retrospective data demonstrates the importance of airborne transmission it will be too late. Further, the lessons learnt now will prepare us better for when the next epidemic strikes.

To summarize, based on the trend in the increase of infections, and understanding the basic science of viral infection spread, we strongly believe that the virus is likely to be spreading through the air. If this is the case, it will take at least several months for this to be confirmed by science. This is valuable time lost that could be used to properly control the epidemic by the measures outlined above and prevent more infections and loss of life. Therefore, we plead that the international and national authorities acknowledge the reality that the virus spreads through air, and recommend that adequate control measures, as discussed above be implemented to prevent further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.