New developments were announced concerning ionization and ultraviolet light technologies as they are applied to aircraft cabin cleaning and their potential to combat Covid-19.
Aviation Clean Air (ACA) has teamed with International Aero Engineering to create the portable, ground use only ionization purification system to disinfect interiors. Building on ACA’s airborne system, the portable unit purifies cabin air and surfaces by flooding the aircraft with electronically-created, pathogen-killing ions. The unit is powered via a standard 110-volt outlet. Once placed on an aircraft cabin floor, it can complete disinfection in less than two hours.
Laboratory tests recently conducted by Innovative Bioanalysis showed that the technology that powers both ACA’s airborne and ground units, needlepoint bipolar ionization (NPBI), successfully neutralizes the Covid-19 virus in conditions that replicate corporate and commercial aircraft interiors. Test results showed that neutralization began immediately and that up to 99.4 percent of the virus was “inactivated” within 30 minutes.
Unlike the ground unit, ACA’s airborne ionization purification system operates through an aircraft’s existing environmental control system whenever it is running. The purification system not only kills pathogens in the air and on surfaces but eliminates odors.
Developed by Global Plasma Solutions, the technology includes an electronic charge to create a high concentration of positive and negative ions that travel through the air and continuously seek out and attach to particles, which then become larger and can be eliminated from the air more rapidly. Positive and negative ions also have microbicidal effects on pathogens, ultimately reducing the infectivity of the virus.
Meanwhile, Dimer’s GermFalcon ultraviolet light (UV) aircraft sanitizing system will now be marketed to the aerospace segment by Honeywell as the Honeywell UV Cabin System. UV-C—200 to 280 nanometers (nm)—is proven to eliminate viruses from aircraft including those that cause coronavirus, ebola, and influenza. UVC has been used in hospitals, air and water filters, microbiology labs, and other applications. Most household lamps have between 500 and 700 nm of ultraviolet light.
The system is packed into a machine the size of a beverage cart and can treat an aircraft the size of a narrowbody airliner in less than 10 minutes for less than $10 per cleaning over the life of the system. The cart hosts a series of extendable UV light arms that sweep over cabin surfaces.
Honeywell notes that “medical studies have found UVC lights capable of reducing certain viruses and bacteria—including SARS CoV and MERS CoV—depending on UV dosage and proper application.”
Mike Madsen, Honeywell Aerospace president and CEO, said the company “is working on a range of solutions to help make passengers more comfortable about flying."
