IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay develops anti-microbial air purification technology

The technology has been tested at CSIR-IMTECH and has proven to be able to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 virus with an efficacy of 99.9 per cent within just 1 minute

IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay has jointly developed “Anti-Microbial Air Purification Technology”. The technology has been tested at CSIR-IMTECH and has proven to be able to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 virus with an efficacy of 99.9 per cent within just 1 minute.

This new technology developed by AiRTH (IIT Bombay Antimicrobial Air Purification Technology), a startup incubated at the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur, now with the CSIR-IMTECH validation can be termed pioneering in its efforts to combat COVID.

It was Ravi Kaushik, the CEO and Founder of AiRTH, who realised the limitations in the existing purification technologies, while he was pursuing his Masters in Environmental Engineering at IIT Bombay. He nurtured his idea to shape it into AiRTH. With guidance and support from Prof. Amitabha Bandopadhyay, Professor-in-charge of the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur, AiRTH was incubated. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, played a crucial role in testing the prototypes, with validation from trusted and respected laboratories of India like CSIR-NPL, CSIR-CDRI, amongst others.

The relatively novel technology from AiRTH is different from the other similar air purifiers in the market. Earlier generation of air purifiers that floods the market, works on the mechanism of capturing particles; however continuous over-usage of the filter medium leads to the filter itself becoming a breeding ground for germs, like a petri dish. The new technology from AiRTH makes sure that the germs are deactivated due to its plant-based coating on the filters, UV irradiations and OH (Hydroxyl) radicals. It works on a D-C-D (Deactivate-Capture-Deactivate) mechanism, which can have upto 8000 times better disinfection efficiency compared to conventional UV-based air purifiers. The technology by AiRTH deactivates airborne pathogens and viruses via inflight deactivation. It gives sufficient residence time to the contaminated air particles before optimising the filtration and then disinfecting them.

air purificationCOVID-19IIT BombayIIT KanpurStartup Incubation and Innovation Centre
Comments (0)
Add Comment