Investigation of Ultraviolet-C light-emitting diode for airborne disinfection in air duct

Given the current coronavirus (COVID-19) situation around the world, we may have to face a long-term battle with coronavirus. It is necessary to prepare and stay resilient with some other techniques to improve air quality in buildings, especially in clinics and hospitals. In this paper, we have developed Ultraviolet-C (UVC) light-emitting diode (LED) modules which can be implemented in air ducts in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system for airborne disinfection. An LED module is designed with LED panels as the basic unit so that it is easy to scale up to accommodate for air ducts with different sizes. Both experiments and simulations are carried out to study its disinfection performance. The results show that more than 76% and 85% of the pathogen can be inactivated within 60 and 90 min, respectively, in a meeting room with a volume of 107 m(3) by using one LED module. Simulations for two LED modules show that the disinfection efficacy is more than two times compared to that of one LED module. In addition to the pathogen used in the experiments, the disinfection performance of the LED module for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 virus based on the literature is investigated numerically. It shows that more than 99.70% of pathogens receive UV dose larger than 4.47 J/m(2), leading to an almost 89.10% disinfection rate for SARS-CoV-2 virus within one hour using the two LED modules in the same meeting room.

Automated summary

Given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to develop techniques for improving air quality in buildings, particularly in healthcare settings. This study presents the development of Ultraviolet-C (UVC) LED modules that can be used for airborne disinfection in air ducts. The results show that one LED module can inactivate over 76% and 85% of pathogens within 60 and 90 minutes, respectively, in a 107 m(3) meeting room. Simulations also demonstrate that using two LED modules significantly enhances the disinfection efficacy. Furthermore, numerical investigations indicate a nearly 89.10% disinfection rate for the SARS-CoV-2 virus within one hour using two LED modules in the same meeting room.