Air Filtration for the Food Industry:
The Benefits of UV-C Light
Among the many challenges facing the industry, air treatment in the food industry is one of the most significant. It affects not only the quality of your production but also consumer health.
That’s why Photoclean has developed a specialized air filtration technique for the food industry using UV-C light. Discover an innovative, eco-friendly, and high-performance solution.
Air Purification in the Food Industry: HEPA or Photolysis?
Air quality in food industry facilities is traditionally ensured by HEPA filters. This technique involves continuously filtering out microparticles and various pollutants present in the air. While effective, this solution does have its limitations. In particular, it is extremely energy-intensive due to pressure drop across the filters, and it is not necessarily well-suited to the food industry, as it requires a high volume of air changes or air recirculation and maintains the premises under positive pressure.
Surface decontamination is also used, but it can only be performed outside of the workshop’s operating hours and is only a temporary measure.
To perform air decontamination in the food industry, there is a simple and effective alternative: photolysis. This light-induced chemical reaction occurs when the decontaminating action of the UV-C lamps in our systems is combined with a specialized filter medium developed and manufactured by Photoclean, which acts as a catalyst by trapping contaminants, microorganisms, and VOCs on its surface. Through photolysis, these substances are simply destroyed.
Operating continuously with minimal pressure drop, this system is particularly well-suited for the food industry.
What are the consequences of air pollution in the food industry?
Air contamination in the food industry can be caused by production processes (cooling phase), product characteristics (ethylene present in fruits), or packaging materials (chlorophenols emitted by pallets), as well as condensation or pollution in the incoming air. Regardless of the source of the problem, it can have dramatic consequences in the food industry:
- the growth of mold or bacteria
- products reaching maturity too quickly
- changes in smell, appearance, or taste…
All of these problems have the same result: they render the food unfit for consumption in the short to medium term…
Why Use UV-C for Air Decontamination in the Food Industry?
The main drawback of conventional air filtration systems is that they do not distinguish between inert particles and contaminants. This leads to unnecessary energy consumption.
In contrast, our air purifiers target contaminants—approximately 1 in every 1,000 inert particles—which offers the dual benefit of significantly reducing both the modules’ energy consumption and their size.
PhotoClean’s Support for Decontaminating Your Facilities
We don’t just provide industrial air decontamination systems. We offer a customized solution tailored to the needs of professionals in the food industry:
- an audit of your facilities to identify your needs and challenges
- the preparation of a comprehensive report with our recommendations, accompanied by a quote
- the manufacturing of your air decontamination modules
- their installation in your food industry facilities.