NIT-designed air purifier launched commercially
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 11
Director of Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Dr Lalit Kumar Awasthi, on Wednesday launched an air purifier which was invented by two faculty members — Dr JK Ratan and Dr KS Nagla.
Prof Awasthi said the technology of air purifier was transferred to Hisafe Electronics Corporation, Panchkula, in June 2020. Within a short period of five months, the institute, in collaboration with the industry (HiSafe), has commercially produced the air purifier product named ‘Airosafe’. The director elaborated: “Airosafe is a cost-effective, indigenously developed intelligent indoor air purifier-cum-sanitiser that can be used in institutions, hospitals, clinics, homes, restaurants, lobbies etc. to improve indoor air quality and reduce risk of air-borne infections, especially for medical staff. A high Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 260 m3/hour enables Airosafe to purify indoor air in a 250 sq. feet room in less than 10 minutes. Airosafe removes allergens, dust particles, mite, pollen, mold, fungi, bacteria, viruses etc. with high efficiency of more than 99.9 per cent.”
Airosafe utilises proprietary Photocatalytic Oxidation (PCO) technology developed by the Department of Chemical Engineering and transferred to Hisafe Electronics Corporation, Panchkula, Haryana, which is manufacturing Airosafe. Apart from PCO technology, Airosafe uses conventional filtration and adsorption to purify the air by use of multiple filters viz. a washable nylon mesh filter, a powerful oxidiser-cum-antibacterial pre-filter, high quality synthetic fiber antibacterial HEPA filter and charcoal activated filter.
Dr Prakshit Bansal, CEO at Hisafe, said: “Airosafe is user-friendly and enables a person to easily check the quality of indoor air and whether the purifier is actually clearing the air or not. This has been made possible by integration of an intelligent, software driven laser sensor, which detects, analyses and displays indoor air pollution of PM 2.5 in terms of actual concentration of particles/m3. Further, the purifier has a coloured light display linked to indoor air quality. Green light indicates good air quality and red light indicates poor air quality. As the purifier improves air quality, the colour of light changes from red to green. Purifier is energy efficient. When air quality is good, it automatically slows down and goes into sleep mode. However, as soon as the air is polluted e.g. due to cigarette smoke, it senses the air quality and speeds up.”
Dr Nagla said: “Weighing just 6 kg, it is portable and can be easily moved from one room to another. Child safety feature includes electrical shutdown in case front panel is accidentally removed. Special power surge protection is provided in the circuit to prevent damage in case of voltage fluctuation. Use of washable nylon mesh filter and oxidising antibacterial pre-filter greatly enhances the life of expensive HEPA filter to more than 3,000 hours, thus making use of Airosafe economical and easy on the pocket. Use of intelligent software enables unmatched power performance, thus reducing operating costs to less than 1 unit per day or less than Rs10 per day.”
To enable wide adoption and use, Airosafe has been launched at an introductory price of Rs12,500 with special discounts for bulk buyers and corporates.
