Concept Design of a High-Voltage Electrostatic Sanitizer to Prevent Spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus

In addition to public health measures, including social distancing, masking, cleaning, surface disinfection, etc., ventilation and air filtration can be a key component of a multi-pronged risk mitigation strategy against COVID-19 transmission indoors. Electrostatic precipitators (ESP) have already p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2021-11, Vol.14 (22), p.7808
Main Authors: Behjat, Vahid, Rezaei-Zare, Afshin, Fofana, Issouf, Naderian, Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosols
Air flow
Air pollution control
Charge density
coronavirus
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Design
Disease control
Disinfection
Electric fields
Electric potential
Electrostatic precipitation
Electrostatic precipitators
Electrostatic properties
electrostatic sanitizer
Exhaust gases
Filtration
finite element modeling
High voltages
Indoor air quality
Indoor environments
Industrial applications
Mitigation
Pollution control equipment
Precipitators
Public health
Risk reduction
Space charge
Ultrafines
Viruses
Voltage
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In addition to public health measures, including social distancing, masking, cleaning, surface disinfection, etc., ventilation and air filtration can be a key component of a multi-pronged risk mitigation strategy against COVID-19 transmission indoors. Electrostatic precipitators (ESP) have already proved their high performance in fluid filtration, particularly in industrial applications, to control exhaust gas emissions and remove fine and superfine particles from the flowing gas, using high-voltage electrostatic fields and forces. In this contribution, a high-voltage electrostatic sanitizer (ESS), based on the electrostatic precipitation concept, is proposed as a supportive measure to reduce indoor air infection and prevent the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus. The finite element method (FEM) is used to model and simulate the proposed ESS, taking into account three main mechanisms involving in electrostatic sanitization, namely electrostatic field, airflow, and aerosol charging and tracing, which are mutually coupled to each other and occur simultaneously during the sanitization process. To consider the capability of the designed ESS in capturing superfine particles, functional parameters of the developed ESS, such as air velocity, electric potential, and space charge density, inside the ESS are investigated using the developed FEM model. Simulation results demonstrate the ability of the designed ESS in capturing aerosols containing coronavirus, precipitating suspended viral particles, and trapping them in oppositely charged electrode plates.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en14227808