IIT Kanpur & IIS Bangalore develop tech to convert ACs into air purifiers

Taking baby steps into a sustainable world, a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) Bangalore, has been successful in developing a technology that is capable of converting air conditioners (ACs) into air purifiers.

In an effort to reduce air pollution, the technology, developed with IIT K's incubated startup Airth Research, comes as a simple tool that can be placed on regular ACs and once you switch to the 'fan mode', it'll do its magic! The air filters are furnished with "Anti-Microbial Air Purification Technology".

The air filters that are currently being employed supposedly work on a particle capture mechanism; where when the filter is used continuously, it can turn into a breeding ground for germs.

The Professor-in-charge of Innovation and Incubation, IIT Kanpur, Ankush Sharma, stated, "The novel air purification technology used in these air filters has successfully proven its efficiency towards protecting us from life-threatening viruses."

The aforementioned novel tech has undergone a test at an NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited lab where it was able to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 (delta variant) with an ideal efficiency of 99.24%.

Basically, the researchers claim that the technology can purify 99% air in merely 1 hour.

This is not the first time this technology has been developed though. A team from IIT Delhi was the first to launch a solution for indoor air pollution and had developed a technology to transform ACs into air purifiers in 2019.

However, the bottom line is this — everyone is quite poignantly aware of the hazards that air pollution pose to the health of the individual. Especially with the onset of winters, the problem worsens. So, if this unique tech milestone can achieve what it says, the situation might just improve drastically and, well, there's no harm in trying, really!

For more details, check out https://airth.in/product/clean-air-module/ .