Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh): At a time when the whole world is struggling to come up with ways to contain the spread of coronavirus disease, Indian Institute of Technology-Tirupati (IIT-T) has developed a machine which can sterilise the air in a room within a few hours thereby help in combating the disease which initially attacks the respiratory system.
Developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati (IISER), the air steriliser has been named Blast 1.0 and it operates at temperatures ranging between 55 to 60-degree celsius.
While Blast 1.0 was developed by Dr Sunil Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT-Tirupati under the supervision of K N Satyanarayana, Director, IIT - Tirupati, IISER scientists Dr Vashudha Rani and Dr Harshini played a significant role in testing the efficiency of the machine.
"We are all working together to develop a machine that combats coronavirus disease. It is basically an air steriliser. It operates on the principle of heating. It has an inlet for air and so it takes air from the surrounding and sends out sterilised air through an outlet. The inlet flow rate is equal to the outlet flow rate. The outlet air is devoid of any microbes like bacteria and virus even though the inlet air had sufficient amount of bacteria and virus as tested by a team of scientists from IISER, " Dr Kumar told ETV Bharat.
Stressing on how Blast 1.0 is different from an air purifier, Dr Kumar said, "This is different from an air purifier because the latter only supplies particulate matter through HEPA filters and things like that but it doesn't deactivate the virus, whereas our machine deactivates the virus as proved by the test conducted by IISER. "
On whether they are planning to scale up the production of the air steriliser, Dr Sunil said, "we are confident that we have a technology that is scalable to a higher level. Right now we have 15 litres per minute of sterile air coming out of the machine but it can be increased. A small room in a hospital or isolation ward containing one patient can be sterilised in two hours...It can be a cost-effective instrument."
Pointing out the benefits of having sterile air, Dr Kumar said, "It is useful in places where oxygen ventilators are not available."
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Talking about the problems faced by them in developing the machine, Kumar said, "we are doing everything on a war footing. However, because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, we had to take special permission to get the parts from Chennai, Pune and other places. I think in the next 3-4 months we will be able to come up with a commercial version of this machine and prior to that in a month or two we can provide samples for free to some isolation wards or hospitals."
Meanwhile, a second version of the machine - Blast 2.0 - is being worked upon by both the organisations.
"This the first version of BLAST. It is a prototype. We are happy to participate in this Covid-19 initiative along with IIT-Tirupati. After building it they brought it to ISER- Tirupati. We have been contributing in looking at the microbiological efficiency of the machine, " said Dr Vasudha Rani, Assistant Professor, IISER, Tirupati.
