Personal Ultraviolet Respiratory Germ Eliminating Machine (PUR$\diamond$GEM) for COVID-19: Prototype Development
Nausheen R. Shah

TL;DR
This paper presents the development and validation of a prototype UV-based device, PURGEM, designed to disinfect inhaled and exhaled air continuously, achieving up to 98% SARS-CoV-2 virus elimination through series of UV chambers.
Contribution
The paper introduces a novel portable UV disinfection device with a detailed analysis of pathogen elimination efficiency and prototype validation for COVID-19.
Findings
Achieves over 4-log pathogen disinfection with three or more cavities.
Prototype demonstrates approximately 98% SARS-CoV-2 virus elimination.
UV power enhancement factor of about 18 using PTFE wrap in spherical chambers.
Abstract
In this article we detail the prototype development of the Personal Ultraviolet Respiratory Germ Eliminating Machine(PURGEM) to safely, efficiently and economically, continuously disinfect inhaled/exhaled air using Ultraviolet (UV) radiation with possible 99.99% virus elimination. The PURGEM consists of a series of UV disinfection chambers through which constant airflow is maintained via fans. A minimum air flow rate of L/min is sufficient to keep CO levels 0.5% in the hood/helmet. We validated that using easily available PTFE wrap, a factor of enhancement in UV power can be obtained in our spherical chambers. Detailed analysis is presented for the air travel time distributions through the cavities, and the expectation value for actual pathogen elimination is computed. We provide the scaling of pathogen elimination with the number…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsInfection Control and Ventilation · Thermal Regulation in Medicine · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts
