The contagious Covid-19 is still not over yet. From time to time the virus keeps on mutating into new variants, posing a challenge for the health experts and scientists. The vaccines to combat the menace are being inoculated to the people, but the day is still awaited when the world will be completely Covid-19 free.
Amid endless research around vaccines and other cures to get rid of Covid-19, a Delhi-based startup backed by Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has developed an air purifier which it says can ‘deactivate’ Covid-19 virus in a minute.
AiRTH has jointly developed this Anti-Microbial Air Purifier Technology jointly at the two IIT campuses.
“A technology named “Anti-Microbial Air Purification Technology”, developed jointly at #IITKanpur and @iitbombay , has proven to be a path-breaking innovation against both air pollutants and the coronavirus,” IIT Kanpur tweeted.
“The technology, developed by AiRTH, not only purifies the air but destroys germs, as well, thereby ensuring complete protection. Having been tested at CSIR-IMTECH, it has proven to be able to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 virus with an efficacy of 99.9% within just 1 minute,” the tweet added.
Ravi Kaushik, the company's chief executive officer said the anti-microbial air purifier technology works on the principal of deactivate-capture-deactivate (DCD) mechanism, i.e, “it deactivates the germs using UV-C irradiation and bombardment with OH radicals such that it is optimised for higher residence time and intensity.”
“The germs and microbes are captured using coated filters and then destroyed by the OH radicals formed due to the process of ionisation and continuous UVC irradiation inside the purifier,” Kaushik added.
Ravi Kaushik, the company's chief executive officer said the anti-microbial air purifier technology works on the principal of deactivate-capture-deactivate (DCD) mechanism, i.e, “it deactivates the germs using UV-C irradiation and bombardment with OH radicals such that it is optimised for higher residence time and intensity.”
“The germs and microbes are captured using coated filters and then destroyed by the OH radicals formed due to the process of ionisation and continuous UVC irradiation inside the purifier,” Kaushik added.
When asked about the validation of his claims, Kaushik cited the test report by the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh.
The test report dated June 16 this year stated, "The AiRTH's anti-microbial air purifier was efficacious in inactivating human coronavirus SARS achieving an inactivation of 99.9 per cent within one minute under machine ‘ON’ condition compared to ‘OFF’ condition under controlled laboratory conditions."
The startup was incubated at the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre at IIT Kanpur. Kaushik, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, said his company is supported by the Centre's Department of Science of Technology.