Air Handling Units and COVID-19: Choose Photoclean Decontamination Modules

Are you looking for a cost-effective and efficient solution for your service industry business to combat the spread of viruses? During this public health emergency, air handling units and COVID-19 are closely linked: it is essential that these units incorporate an effective decontamination solution to prevent the virus from spreading throughout your facilities.

For this reason, Photoclean Quartz, a specialist in UV disinfection of air, offers professionals a new line of air decontamination modules compatible with all air handling units, featuring a quick and easy slide-in installation.

Here, we explain howadding a decontamination module to your air handling unit provides long-lasting protection for your premises.

Air Conditioning and COVID-19: A Major Challenge for the Service Sector

Many companies in the service sector use a dual-flow air handling unit for air treatment, particularly for air conditioning their facilities.

These systems sometimes operate in a closed-loop configuration to save energy: in this case, the indoor air is recycled, so that clean air from one room is recirculated into another.

This operation can pose a problem in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic because the energy recovery units built into the air handling units are likely to harbor the virus and spread it. The risk of airborne transmission is therefore increased.

To prevent this from happening, it is therefore important to choose an air decontamination solution that is suitable for your HVAC system. This is no easy task, given that the filters most commonly used for this purpose (HEPA filters, which can filter out the fine particles to which contaminants adhere) are generally incompatible with the systems used in the service sector.

In fact, the coronavirus has a diameter of 0.06 to 0.14 microns. To filter the air at such a fine level, HEPA filters exert high pressure on the air, resulting in a particularly significant pressure drop… However, most air handling units (AHUs) in the commercial sector, which are sized to serve corporate offices, are unable to compensate for this pressure drop.

The challenge, therefore, is to find a suitable technology that can continuously perform air decontamination in office spaces without having to replace the existing system…

Photoclean: A decontamination module compatible with your air handling unit (AHU) for virus control

The solution offered by Photoclean is ideal for combating COVID-19 through UV air decontamination.

Our innovative technology is based on the principle of photolysis, a natural chemical reaction that destroys airborne microorganisms from within. We have developed a filter medium manufactured exclusively at our facility in Lyon that traps contaminants and transmits the UV-C rays generated by our lamps. These lamps continuously destroy the contaminants with minimal pressure drop.

Until now, we have been offering our customers modules with universal frames for air handling units in sizes 610x305mm or 610x610mm. These products are very effective, but they have the drawback of being quite bulky and must be brought inside the control center to be installed.

We have therefore designed a brand-new line of UV disinfection modules for air handling units (AHUs) with a slide-in mounting system for easier installation, which can be easily carried out by the maintenance departments of our commercial clients.

These modules are particularly well-suited for smaller air handling units and are therefore better suited for service sector businesses. They feature built-in F7 or F9 filtration, depending on your needs, which takes up the same amount of space as a standard filter. The additional pressure drop is very low, so you save money without sacrificing efficiency.