This image, provided by South Korean startup VBolta Filter, shows an indoor ventilation system.
SEOUL, July 23 (Korea Bizwire) — On days with high fine dust levels, many people will close all the windows and doors at home and turn on an air purifier.
But experts point out the concentrations of indoor air pollutants increase when all the windows and doors are shut.
Ventilation is the key to help remove or dilute indoor airborne pollutants coming from indoor sources, such as pet dander, cooking and other short-term activities.
To protect and improve indoor air quality, the South Korean government made it mandatory for local builders to equip new apartments with a ventilation system in 2006.
An air intake vent, usually located on the balcony of an apartment residence, pulls in the surrounding air and then provides clean fresh air into the home through multiple exhaust outlets in the ceiling.
Harry Yun, CEO of Korean startup VBolta Filter, said the mandatory ventilation system supplies fresh air into the residence, but the air is possibly polluted by dirt, viruses or even insects while passing through contaminated ducts.
“Some three years after the completion of the building, ducts get dirty and the air coming through the pipes gets dirty too,” he said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Monday.
“It’s hard to clean up the ducts inside the walls and ceiling. The easiest and simplest way to have clean air at home is to filter the air at the air outlets in the ceiling.”
This photo taken July 17, 2023, shows VBolta Filter’s air diffuser cover (L) and its filter. (Yonhap)
To this end, Yun, a former researcher at a research center under the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, developed the VBolta filter in 2016, an electromagnetic air filter using polarity through which nearly all atoms can attract electrons with force, and set up a company to produce it last year.
In a sheet made of chemical compounds like ethylene and propylene, tens of thousands of electronegative and electropositive electrons in the filter draw their opposite electrons present in fine dust and viruses and absorbs them.
Yun said the VBolta filter works without an electric power supply, outperforming the high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which is a widely used air filter installed in most air ventilation devices like air conditioners.
“The HEPA filter is made of layers of thick fibers that create a narrow convoluted air pathway and blocks the particles from passing through. Its performance varies in line with the filter’s thickness,” he said.
“But at the same time, the thickness keeps the air from flowing and demands a powerful motor to suck in the air.”
But he stressed the VBolta filter, powered by electron polarity, catches dirt and viruses on its own without a motor or a fan. So it can be easily installed and removed.
“If you want to install HEPA filters in your apartment vents, it’s a big mess. You have to open up the ceiling and set up electricity cables,” he said. “But using our VBolta filter isn’t a big deal.”
This image provided by South Korean startup VBolta Filter, shows an air diffuser cover equipped with a VBolta filter.
His company offers a 15 centimeter round air diffuser cover equipped with a roll of VBolta filter and users can replace the old one as if they are changing a light bulb in the ceiling.
“The filter can be changed every year in residential settings,” he said. “If you want to use it again, you just wash the filter in water and dry it with a dryer. But its performance decreases some 30 percent.”
After years of research and development, Yun is now about to start a retail business to sell the VBolta filter.
He expected demand for the filter will be great as an increasing number of people are interested in indoor air quality, citing a report by the World Health Organization that household air pollution was responsible for an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year in 2020.
“These days, people spend more than 80 percent of their time indoors every day. Indoor air quality is a matter of life,” he said. “Our first goal is to reach 10 billion won (US$7.9 million) in sales in the next three years.”
(Yonhap)
