Integrated Viral Protection

COVID-19 has to-date sickened 6.7 million people worldwide and killed over 108,000 people in the U.S. alone over the span of only a few months. Months into the pandemic, there are still few active strategies in place with the capability to effectively protect the public against COVID-19 transmission. To address this global challenge, Integrated Viral Protection Solutions (IVPS) has developed a specialized heated HVAC filter fortified with UV-germicidal irradiation to condition and purify circulating air in the environment to effectively combat aerosolized COVID-19. This foundational technology will be engineered into purification units that can be readily deployed for use in essential service sectors, like hospitals and airplanes. This will improve the safety of frontline workers in essential industries by reducing the risk of exposure and allow the public to more safely re-engage with their communities in public spaces.

COVID-19 is leaving tremendous disruption in its wake. Businesses, supply chains, workforces, communities- all are being affected by issues related to the pandemic. Social distancing and remote working have created additional unique challenges for family care and community involvement and support. The uncertainty of the future requires that we, as a society, develop and implement innovative solutions that will allow people to return to work and community safely without putting others at greater exposure risk.  IVPS intends to apply its unique air purification technology to the Health Security & Pandemics 2020 Global Challenge with a vision towards slowing the spread of COVID-19. In particular, venues where essential workers are at elevated risk of exposure (hospitals and healthcare facilities, public transit environs like airplanes) represent a particularly vulnerable community in need of solutions that reduce exposure risk.

IVPS is developing a specialized heated HVAC filter that utilizes targeted thermal induction of high-performance nickel foam, coupled with a flame retardant and a high-efficiency particulate air purification filtration system to kill COVID-19 viral particles on contact. The electrically conducting porous material of the nickel-foam based filter is designed to capture viral particles and instantaneously kill the virus by exposing to heat approaching ~250 °C. IVPS plans to fortify this proprietary and innovative filtration system with built-in ultra-violet exposure to serve as an extra layer of safety to eliminate SARS-CoV-2. This foundational technology will be engineered into purification units that can be readily deployed for use in essential service sectors. In addition, IVPS intends to adapt this technology into individual mobile air purification devices that can be carried on your person to maintain a clean personal air space in populated environs, where social distancing may not be possible.

While IVPS envisions that their purification technology stands to have a dramatic impact globally in various industry sectors, they initially wish to implement their filters into essential work sectors where frontline workers are at elevated exposure risk (i.e. hospitals and healthcare facilities). Frontline healthcare workers are the backbone of effective health systems and are essential in today’s changing healthcare landscape. Health care depends overwhelmingly on the human factor, thus we believe that applying our technology early-on to support safer work environments for frontline health care workers will have an enormous positive impact in the communities they serve and improve overall health outcomes. It will also reduce the psychological stress associated with working in unsafe environments. We can get an insight from them and letting their opinions help us steer the path forward accordingly.

The Challenge presented is to identify feasible solutions that will enable communities around the world to prevent and mitigate future infectious disease outbreaks. COVID-19 infections are persistently spread by circulating airflow; this is the primary mechanism for transmission. Our novel air purification filtration system significantly slows the spread of COVID-19 by capturing and killing viral particles on contact. The current prototype demonstrates a 100% kill rate and a 4-log decrease in the active virus in the circulating air. IVPS seeks to deploy its purification units into healthcare systems to protect frontline workers at increased risk of exposure to the virus. 

There are few active strategies to protect the public against COVID-19, and those that exist are widely debated, costly, and inefficient. The current filter and air purification technologies are not successful at capturing and killing COVID-10 viral particles, which at a size of 0.05-0.2 microns simply pass through existing filters. Even the best-rated HEPA filters can only filter particulate larger than 0.3 microns. Our approach utilizes an innovative approach that combines a mechanical kill using temperature and a supercharged, high-performance metal. IVPS filters have a unique mechanism of action that uses an electrically conducting porous nickel foam combined with a highly efficient HVAC filter. The nickel-foam based filter is designed to capture viral particles and instantaneously kill the virus by exposing to heat approaching ~250 °C. In addition, IVPS plans to fortify this proprietary and innovative filtration system with built-in ultra-violet exposure to serve as an extra layer of safety to eliminate SARS-CoV-2. 

IVPS filters use low energy, targeted thermal conduction of high-performance, high-resistance porous nickel foam encased in a flame-retardant frame combined with a highly efficient HVAC filter. Nickel (Ni) foam is a low cost, electrically conductive, highly porous with random channels, and mechanically strong with good flexibility, which can act as a good filter for sterilization and disinfection in an HVAC system. The bent Ni foam provides a structure with higher resistance and lower voltage and increases surface area for sterilization. The temperature of Ni foam increases very fast and can be heated to a high temperature with low wattage power.  The air temperature decreases very fast after passing through the heated Ni foam; even at temperatures over 100°C, the air temperature is room temperature at only 4 cm from the filter. When voltage is passed through nickel mesh/foam (1.43×107 σ), the metal conducts energy to a target temperature hot enough to kill pathogens, including COVID-19 on contact (250 °C).  The mesh/foam (1.0 mm) provides a charged surface area for the virus to bounce around the heated latticework to its death, while the metal’s porosity (>90%) does not impede airflow. In addition, IVPS plans to fortify this proprietary and innovative filtration system with built-in ultra-violet exposure. CDC has earlier reported that ssRNA coronaviruses can be >99% eliminated with only 611 uJ/cm2 UVGI dose. Therefore, instead of using standard UV, IVPS plans to use Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) that uses short-wavelength UV-C, which kills the virus by disruption of nucleic acid.

Monzer Hourani, owner and CEO of IVPS, collaborated with a team of physician scientists, physicists, engineers, and virologists in Texas to design and test specialized COVID-19 HVAC filters. Primary research of the filter design and conductivity was completed at the Superconductivity Center of Texas at The University of Houston. The proof-of-concept for the invention is based on a multi-institutional research effort that includes findings of controlled experiments recently completed at the Galveston National Lab/NIAID Biodefense Laboratory Network. In these studies, researchers found that COVID-19 was vaporized in aerosolized air upon contact with the prototype heated filter system. Their results demonstrate a 4-log decrease in active virus and a 100% kill rate of COVID-19 by the filter. This research is the first, to our knowledge, to show that COVID-19 can be eliminated from the air, and provides a solid rationale for advancing this product towards deployment in settings that are high-risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission. Here is the link to the paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.13.150243v1. Here is the link to a video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlI4AfZwK0s&feature=youtu.be.

Comparable to SARS-CoV-1, aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 can remain in the air for about 3 hours, although their viral load continually diminishes during that time. It was also found that the virus contained in droplets that settled on various surfaces can remain viable for several days. Scientists are now questioning whether the virus can travel even greater distances through the air by becoming lodged in other airborne particles such as condensed water vapor or even dust. Such a mode of transmission would be extremely concerning and would call into question the adequacy of measures that are mostly designed to address issues related to proximity to an infectious individual, such as wearing masks, washing hands and surfaces, and general social distancing. One of the earliest studies addressing this subject indicated that such transmission may be possible for SARS-CoV-2 since viral RNA was still detected in areas of the hospital that it could only have reached through the atmosphere or the ventilation system.

Currently, with increasing numbers of people returning to the workplace, the chances of infection resulting from aerosol transmission through central air-conditioning systems are increasing. Thus, determining how to stop the virus from spreading in air-conditioned spaces is extremely urgent. Simple filtration cannot completely stop the spread. Fortunately, most viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, are not resistant to high temperatures. It has been demonstrated that the time needed for SARS-CoV-2 inactivation is reduced to 5 minutes when the incubation temperature is increased to 70 ℃. Therefore, we are developing a novel HVAC disinfection system that can be safely heated to a high temperature (e.g., up to 250 ℃) so that any SARS-CoV-2 in the cycling air can be efficiently killed on contact without changing the temperature of the ambient air in circulation. An ideal system should be self-heated rather than have an external heat source that would surely cause a very large rise in air temperature, which requires that the filter itself be electrically conductive. 

Currently none as we are in the development phase. In the future, tens of millions will be served.

1 yr:

Continued R&D

Bring the product to consumers

5 yr:

Continue to refine

Enhanced technology

Better versions

To advance, and ultimately launch this product into service, IVDS needs to complete design optimization and comprehensively test their filters for appropriate end-use. The prototype on which the SARS-CoV-2 experiments were performed lacked Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI), which uses short-wavelength UV-C to kill the virus by disruption of nucleic acid. Therefore, IVPS also needs to design and study the impact of fortification of the original nickel foam-based filtration system in conjunction with a UVGI grid to ensure that the final device qualifies for an FDA Class-II medical device classification, which will allow for the filtration units to be implemented indoors, particularly in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Once these technical objectives have been completed, the resulting filters will need to be manufactured and distributed to target consumers. Collectively, these represent a series of technical and financial barriers that need to be overcome to generate and deploy our COVID-19 filters into service.

1) Technical barriers (redesign and beta testing of filters): The best team of physicists and physician-scientists

2) Financial barriers: Grants, capital raising

3) Manufacturing and distribution barriers: Building partnerships with advanced and large manufacturers and distributors with a big geographical footprint

8-10 part-time

Monzer Hourani, CEO of IVPS, has a degree in Physics & Mathematics, as well as degrees in Structural Engineering and Architectural Studies. He has been involved in many high-impact engineering innovations, including the pioneering discovery and advancements of the state-of-the-art slab-on-grade foundation system. He also worked with Federal and State agencies to halt the devastating BP Horizon oil spill. He is an inventor on a number of patented and patent-pending technologies, among them an oil skimmer for rapid containment and cleanup, an innovative system for flood control in Houston following Hurricane Harvey, and a removable, reusable window-brace system to protect existing buildings from Hurricane Category 5 force winds. He is the primary inventor of mobile and building-integrated systems that kill COVID-19 and other airborne viruses. At IVPS, he is joined by Dr. Garrett Peel, MD, a physician-scientist and Project Lead, and Dr. Faisal Cheema, MA, physician-scientist and Scientific Lead. 

We currently partner with the University of Houston, TX, specifically the Texas Center for Superconductivity & Department of Physics; the Galveston National Laboratory and University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX; and Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. We are working with them through academic collaborations. 

COVID-19 is leaving tremendous disruption in its wake. Businesses, supply chains, workforces, communities- all are being affected by issues related to the pandemic. Economic shutdowns mean loss of income and depletion of savings. Meanwhile, social distancing and remote working have created additional unique challenges for family care and community involvement and support. In the uncertainty of what the future holds, we must meet the moment and begin to put into place new systems that will allow for safer workplaces for essential workers and create safe spaces once again for people to return to work or community. IVDS’s innovative mobile COVID-19 purification units will serve as an additive and preventative modality to reduce COVID-19 exposure risk to allow for the public to return to normal work and community activities more safely.

The goal of our technology is to generate and deploy our COVID-19 filters into essential service sectors to improve the safety of these spaces for essential workers and the public in general. 

We designed and fabricated a purification device consisting of folded pieces of Ni foam in multiple compartments connected electrically in series to efficiently increase the resistance to a manageable level so that a temperature up to 250 ℃ was able to be achieved, and found that the filter device exhibits almost 100% ability to catch and kill aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 and anthrax spores in the air passed once through the Ni foam heated up to 200 ℃.

Initially grants for R&D

Later raising funds for refining products

Eventually through sales

The funds from MIT Solve ($10K) would be used to design, test, and optimize UVGI (short-wavelength UV-C for disrupting nucleic acid, thereby killing virus) as an add-on complementary technology to the novel nickel-foam based novel filtration system to make it qualify for FDA Class-II medical device classification. This will allow for the implementation of units into indoor environs including hospitals and other healthcare facilities. This would allow us to overcome our remaining technical barriers and some financial barriers. 

MIT Faculty, Solve in addition to our current collaborators through academic collaborations

Monzer Hourani, CEO of IVPS, has been involved in many high-impact engineering innovations, including the pioneering discovery and advancements of the state-of-the-art slab-on-grade foundation system. He also worked with Federal and State agencies to halt the devastating BP Horizon oil spill. He is an inventor on a number of patented and patent-pending technologies, among them an oil skimmer for rapid containment and cleanup, innovative system for flood control in Houston following Hurricane Harvey, and a removable, reusable window-brace system to protect existing buildings from Hurricane Category 5 force winds. He is the primary inventor of mobile and building-integrated systems that kill COVID-19 and other airborne viruses. The Elevate Prize for Health Security would be used towards manufacturing, distribution, and marketing goals in order to expedite the implementation of COVID-19 filtration systems into high priority venues around the country.