UNDER THE HOOD
COVID AND FLU
COVID-19 and the upcoming flu season keep us on edge: How do we prepare our homes, offices, and indoor space? Encouraged by the ongoing vaccination program, we recognize that no vaccine can provide full protection. And then there are variants…
Since the corona virus and most common flu infections are transmitted via air, N5Air focused on creating virus-free indoor safe zones, and designed a UVC light air sanitizing system for homes, businesses, and offices.
The virus concentration in the air that we inhale determines whether our immune system can overcome the virus invasion. Both N5Air UVC air sanitizing systems, HVAC and mobile, reduce indoor viral load and lower the probability of infection.
Our systems use the ultraviolet light with a wavelength of about 254 nm. Experiments show that the photons of this wavelength are most effective in deactivating viruses and other pathogens on impact by scrambling and destroying their genetic RNA material. Note that practically all ultraviolet radiation in UVC range is filtered out by the earth atmosphere.
Our spot measurement of UVC irradiance at the ground level on Long Island on a partially sunny winter day was around 0.5 W/m2. Although this number is small, it is not zero: the sun does provide some albeit very small anti-virus surface and air sanitizing… However, our systems produce the UVC sanitizing light more dozens times more intense than that, delivered continuously!
BACK-OF-THE-ENVELOPE CALCULATION
Photons and Viruses: Size
According to quantum mechanics, the size of a photon in a light beam cannot be determined “in the flight”. The photon reveals itself as an object with size only when it is measured in an experiment or in the course of interacting with a particle: for our purposes, a virus. For the purposes of this calculation, we will assume that the “interaction size” of the photon is equal to its wavelength, 254 nm in the case of UVC light. The average size of a virus is around 150 nm. So, the UVC photons and viruses are in the same “weight category”.
Photon Energy
Virus and Photon Population
In a typical indoor environment, there may be around 10^5 viruses in one cubic meter of air. Assuming that the chamber’s volume is one cubic meter, we have, very roughly speaking, 3.8 10^19 photons against 10^5 viruses – seemingly a hands-down win for the photons. However, the probability of photon-virus interaction is very low, and to incapacitate ALL viruses and fully sanitize the air carrying them through any UVC sanitizer chamber while passing it ONLY ONCE, a high level of ultraviolet light irradiation must be delivered by the chamber. Therefore, all UVC chambers in N5Air virus busters are designed to do just that!
A small N5Air fan can provide 950 people with all the sanitized air they need...
Which follows from these two facts:
1 – An average person breathes in (and out) around 6 liters of air every minute.
2 – The Tall Tower’s fan completely sanitizes 5,700 liters of air every minute.
The devil of course is in details; in our case it’s delivery…
A THEORY: UNIVERSAL, INHALED DELIVERY VIRUS INOCULATION
Two Roads to Inoculation
Generally, the immunity to infectious diseases is acquired as the immune system responds to exposure to a live virus – at or below a certain threshold of viral load: a viral load above this threshold leads to infection.
There are two approaches to achieving immunity: exposure to deactivated virus or below-the-threshold exposure to live virus. Obviously, the exposure threshold varies from individual to individual.
Universal Inoculation
N5Air air-sanitizing towers work by delivering large doses of UVC light to the air passing through their chambers. The design and working parameters of the towers is such that the viruses are deactivated by UVC light just in one pass through the sanitizing chamber. During that passage, the UVC light renders the virus dysfunctional. Importantly [REFERENC], it does not destroy the virus’ “fingerprint”. Therefore, the immune system will recognize the intruding virus as a live threat and start producing antibodies and thus – immunity. The N5Air sanitizer’s ability to deactivate but not destroy live viruses makes it effectively an inoculation tool.
Subject to experimental proof, the UVC light ability to deactivate any virus, including any strain or variant of coronavirus or influenza, may indicate a possibility for creating a Universal, Inhaled Delivery Virus Inoculation Tool!
Enter the N5Air air sanitizing towers delivering extremely large doses of UVC light to the air passing through their chambers. The design and working parameters of their sanitizing chambers is such that ALL viruses passing through them ONLY ONCE will be “deactivated” by UVC light, rendering them dysfunctional. At the same time, since UVC light does not destroy the invading virus’ “fingerprint”, the immune system will be able to recognize it and develop the inoculation shield protecting the body. The N5Air tower’s ability to deactivate a live virus would make it effectively an “inoculation tool”. Importantly, N5Air systems should deactivate any virus, corona or seasonal, acting as a universal virus inoculation tool!
UVC-EMPOWERED AIR CONDITIONING
The simplified illustration below shows the key elements of a UVC-empowered HVAC system including the air sanitizer. It also shows the freon and air life cycles. The freon life cycle in the closed-loop AC system has five segments, starting from the point where the freon gas leaves the evaporator carrying away the heat received from the room air.
- SEGMENT 1. Low pressure/medium temperature (LPMT) freon gas returns to the compressor.
- SEGMENT 2. In the compressor, pressure and temperature of the LPMT freon gas is turned into a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gas.
- SEGMENT 3. The HPHT freon gas enters the condenser coil to condense into high pressure high temperature (HPHT) liquid freon. To facilitate the phase change, the condenser coil is cooled by a flow of the ambient air circulated around the coil by fan.
- SEGMENT 4. The HPMT liquid freon enters the expansion device where it sharply cools down and becomes low pressure, low temperature (LPLT) freon gas.
- SEGMENT 5. The LPLT freon gas flows inside of the evaporator coil. The room air is blown over the cold coil by a fan as the gas freon absorbs heat from the air. In the process, the LPLT freon gas converts into a LPMT freon gas that enters the compressor (STEP 1). This completes the freon life cycle in an AC system.