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| Open Source Ventilator |
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| james_s:
How about passing the exhaust through a chamber with a powerful UV germicidal lamp? If ordinary germicidal tubes are insufficient, there are mercury arc lamps with orders of magnitude higher loading that produce copious amounts of UV in addition to high temperature. Another option is just plain old heat, pass the exhaust through a heat exchanger, bringing the temperature up to several hundred degrees which would vaporize any biological material is no problem. |
| Blitzschnitzel:
That is a great idea. Heat will defiantly work but if you have ten patients in a room that might get quite toasty. Do you know how strongly UV radiation affects viruses? My guess would be that they are even stronger affected as bacteria as they don't have a cell around their RNA package. |
| james_s:
I don't, but surely it is something that somebody out there is knowledgeable about. Thinking about the volume of air I typically exhale I'd be shocked if more than 100W is required to heat it well over the point where it kills anything in it quite possibly less. That is not a large heat load, IIRC it's roughly what our bodies produce. Even if it was enough heat to be an issue the hot sterilized air could be vented outside. I'm thinking something similar to the heating element used in a hot air soldering station. |
| pipe2null:
I wonder how well off-the-shelf solutions might work, air purifying with built-in UV: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VGIGVY/ Not necessarily this specific model (that I have in my house), but something like it? At first glance, I'd be concerned that the UV isn't powerful enough and the fan increasing air circulation in a patient's room would compound the problem if UV is not keeping up with the flow. But if the lamp is actually bright enough, then the remainder of the partial solution is the 3d printed adapter for intubation if applicable, tubing, a 3d printed hose mount to hold the exhaust tube on the air purifier intake, plus a healthy amount of duct tape to only partially obstruct the intake (don't want a complete vacuum...) and make really sure the hose is securely mounted/taped to the intake. If something like this could work, then you could tube up several patients to the same unit. |
| rdl:
MIT is working on this. Lots of info available there. https://e-vent.mit.edu/ |
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