AIR AND SURFACE SANITATION: New technologies for disinfection – L’Auvergnat de Paris
In the merciless fight that the CHRs are waging against the Covid-19, an emergency door may well appear through innovative systems, usually used in industry or hospitals, to purify the air and sanitize surfaces.
The anti-Covid protection system installed by Alain Ducasse at Allard, to filter the ambient air and bring a healthy breath of fresh air to each table of the restaurant, was welcomed by the customers who found it reassuring. In my opinion, certain categories of tourists will need a guarantee of safety to return to the restaurants, especially foreigners,” said Benoît Gillmann, CEO of Bio-UV, whose company has developed several disinfection devices (see box). In the future, certain sectors, particularly the hotel and restaurant industry, will have to adopt more advanced hygiene and disinfection protocols. “The choice of an air purifier depends very much on the use you want to make of it,” notes Jean-Christophe Champion, air quality expert at BioCleanair Assethos.
Among the means deployed, filtration, often used in operating theatres, would however present flaws, according to Jean-Christophe Campion. “Filtration has the advantage of being able to choose which sizes of microparticles should be stopped by the filters. But that’s still capture, we don’t kill viruses. The filters get dirty and when they have to be changed, it is not impossible that they will disperse again. “Ionization decontamination devices also have the disadvantage that they do not remove viruses, but disperse them away from the treated area. The greatest promise would therefore come from UV systems, which would allow undesirable microorganisms to be eliminated with high rates of effectiveness.
Protecting surfaces: coatings that kill
In recent months, the materio.com platform, which references materials with unique properties, has seen a surge in demand for bio-treated coatings, particularly against viruses and bacteria. It is not our role to advise on this or that material,” recalls Quentin Hirsinger, founder of the platform. Our added value lies in sourcing products that present a particular asset that can be used in different contexts. “The decontamination and sanitization of surfaces by processes other than repeated cleaning is one of the challenges of health safety. Metalskin Technologies, a TPE in the Hérault region of France, uses the antiseptic properties of copper in paint.
“Scientists have very recently evaluated the mortality of Covid-19 on certain surfaces, including copper, which is the active ingredient in MetalSkin®. Their study shows that on a copper surface, the virus is eliminated in less than 4 hours compared to 1 to 2 days on stainless steel,” the company reacted. After a long experimental phase, the company now wants to promote the integration of this bactericidal coating in the manufacturing process of industrial companies. The only downside is that the high cost of copper currently prevents the massive deployment of this technology.
