High-Quality and Easy-to-Regenerate Personal Filter

Abstract Proper respiratory tract protection is the key factor to limiting the rate of COVID-19 spread and providing a safe environment for health care workers. Traditional N95 (FFP2) respirators are not easy to regenerate and thus create certain financial and ecological burdens; moreover, their quality may vary significantly. A solution that would overcome these disadvantages is desirable. In this study a commercially available knit polyester fleece fabric was selected as the filter material, and a total of 25 filters of different areas and thicknesses were prepared. Then, the size-resolved filtration efficiency (40–400 nm) and pressure drop were evaluated at a volumetric flow rate of 95 L/min. We showed the excellent synergistic effect of expanding the filtration area and increasing the number of filtering layers on the filtration efficiency; a filter cartridge with 8 layers of knit polyester fabric with a surface area of 900 cm2 and sized 25 × 14 × 8 cm achieved filtration efficiencies of 98 % at 95 L/min and 99.5 % at 30 L/min. The assembled filter kit consists of a filter cartridge (14 Pa) carried in a small backpack connected to a half mask with a total pressure drop of 84 Pa at 95 L/min. In addition, it is reusable, and the filter material can be regenerated at least ten times by simple methods, such as boiling. We have demonstrated a novel approach for creating high-quality and easy-to-breathe-through respiratory protective equipment that reduces operating costs and is a green solution because it is easy to regenerate..

Medienart:

Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

bioRxiv.org - (2021) vom: 23. Dez. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2021

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Fraenkl, Max [VerfasserIn]
Krbal, Milos [VerfasserIn]
Houdek, Jakub [VerfasserIn]
Zmrhalova, Zuzana Olmrova [VerfasserIn]
Prokes, Borivoj [VerfasserIn]
Hejda, Petr [VerfasserIn]
Slang, Stanislav [VerfasserIn]
Prikryl, Jan [VerfasserIn]
Ondracek, Jakub [VerfasserIn]
Makes, Otakar [VerfasserIn]
Kostyk, Juraj [VerfasserIn]
Nasadil, Petr [VerfasserIn]
Malcik, Pavel [VerfasserIn]
Zdimal, Vladimir [VerfasserIn]
Vlcek, Miroslav [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [kostenfrei]

doi:

10.1101/2021.12.16.21267766

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

XBI033277931