NRI Invents Air Purifier That Can Kill Pollutants

Air purifiers are generally intended to improve the quality of air at homes and make it easy to breath for the residents. This is especially important if the people are sensitive to dust or prone to asthma attacks. However, traditional air purifers tend to fail on certain occasions. Faced with a similar situation, a professor at the University of South Florida invented a device that eliminates indoor air pollution at a molecular level.

The professor, Yogi Goswami, found that the regular air purifiers failed to clean the atmosphere at home and also did not remove harmful molecules in the air. He found that his infant son Dilip continued to suffer from asthma attacks despite installing the best available air purifiers at home. The professor with his expertise in renewable energy began a research on why the traditional air purifiers failed. He found that they incorporated the traditional HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) technology, which was first invented in the 1940s and continued to be adopted by manufacturers even 70 years later.

Faced with this finding, Goswami began his own research into air purifiers. After two decades of research and development, he invented a device that incorporated the patented technology of Photo Electrochemical Oxidation (PECO), which eliminated indoor air pollution at a molecular level. His invention was successful that it made it to Time Magazine's list of 25 best inventions of 2017.

PECO works by shining a light on a filter membrane coated with nanoparticles, quite similar to the way light shines on a solar cell and generates electricity. This activates a chemical reaction on the surface of the filter, which breaks down pollutants of any size that pass through the filter, including those up to 1000 times smaller than a traditional HEPA filter can catch. Having personally benefited from this technology, Dr Goswami’s children, Dilip and Jaya, decided to develop the technology into a consumer-friendly device to help those who have to grapple with similar conditions. Thus, the Molekule air purifier finally took birth in July 2017.