What is the difference between air purification and active air disinfection?
To answer this question, I must first ask another:
What exactly are these aerosols that everyone has been talking about during the coronavirus crisis?
Aerosols are solid or liquid particles suspended in a gas. In our case, the gas is the air that we breathe and the suspended particles could be water droplets in the form of water vapor (= atmospheric humidity), dust particles, or even bacteria, viruses, and mold spores.
We as people are what’s known as symbionts and exist together with billions of bacteria. This includes not just the “good” type but also the kind that are harmful to us, particularly if our immune systems are under strain or weak. In addition to bacteria, there are viruses – some harmless and unfortunately some like the influenza virus (flu) or the SARS-CoV-2 virus (coronavirus) – that have been known to cause devastating damage.
When we are sick, we spread these good and bad bacteria as well as harmful viruses around the room that we are currently in with every single breath we take. As has now been scientifically proven, indoor areas pose the biggest problem during the coronavirus crisis because they present by far the greatest risk of infection.
The bacteria or viruses mix with the aerosols and some join with these permanently – as a result, the SARS-CoV-2 viruses can remain in the air and infectious for up to six hours. Whether they cause an infection depends on the “dose” that we inhale in a “contaminated” room.
So, the most effective thing we can do is clean these aerosols or, even better, disinfect them – this would be a milestone in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and other diseases such as influenza or the dreaded multi-resistant germs.
Now, back to the initial question – what is the difference between air purification and active air disinfection?
There used to be just one type of air purification with people present in a room: the classic method where the filter units (normally equipped with HEPA or electrostatic precipitators) clean the air at a central location and the aerosols are irradiated with UV-C light (or even ozone). However, this method has one huge flaw: the aerosols and therefore the bacteria and viruses must first be drawn across the room, in the vicinity of all the people there. This means that we can become infected right up until the moment cleaning takes place, namely by inhaling passing bacteria and viruses!
Until recently, air disinfection was possible only by means of chemical processes such as hydrogen peroxide aerosolization. As hydrogen peroxide is toxic to us in the concentration required here, people cannot be present during and some time after disinfection.
A completely harmless method of air disinfection can be achieved using hydroxyl radicals that are present in nature. For several years now, a team of doctors and scientists has been working on reproducing this natural phenomenon in indoor areas. A method has been developed in the form of the so-called STEREX process that produces a mixture of plasma and air. This has been adopted from nature and is proven to be completely harmless to people. If this plasma-air mixture is distributed evenly throughout the room, its effects are felt across the entire area, permanently, and in real time. It actively kills viruses and bacteria right at the source – in the air that we breathe and on all the aerosols where harmful germs have gathered, hence the term “active air disinfection“.
The levels of efficiency and effectiveness are sky-high – around 100 times higher than those of the filter performance of FFP2 masks! As a result, people can meet indoors completely normally when STEREX technology is being used – provided there is a certain amount of social distancing. There is no need to wear masks either – just like the old days! This technology works without consumables or any necessary maintenance. It is completely chemical-free and uses as little energy as a 25 W light bulb.
It almost sounds too good to be true but the honest answer is: YES, it works! Not only have we had its effects tested and confirmed by accredited hygiene institutes and universities, but we can also vouch for its safety thanks to comprehensive toxicological reports. It is quite simply an extraordinary and extremely efficient 21st century method and one that is “Made in Austria” at that!
