Energy Efficient Building with filterless Air Pollution Abatement solution

Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) systems are responsible for up to 60% of the energy used by buildings and are still relying 100% on inefficient and expensive filters, adding to the cost of energy used, also high maintenance and material costs for building owners and consequently to tenants. Moreover, ensuring a good quality of the air we breathe (ambient air, at ground level) in the areas of work and life is nowadays essential both for people's health and for the environment, and following recent pandemic events and scientific evidence, a good indoor air quality and ventilation is key to reduce virus/infection spread. With cost of energy going up at unprecedented levels and CO2 emissions associated to building energy usage becoming key to achieve Net Zero target for the UK, acting on HVAC energy efficiency and improving air quality levels inside buildings are the obvious targets. However, most of the existing technologies are acting in silos, some on the management of the HVAC operation to reduce energy consumption, and not on their intrinsic efficiency, other technologies instead are trying to remove/abate pollutants inside individual rooms with additional costs for the building owner/tenants.

What we are proposing is a new and innovative approach using our nature-based technology called APA (Air Pollution Abatement) already patented by IGS and extensively tested and validated by third independent parties for the abatement of pollutants indoor and outdoor, which has the unique characteristic to use simple water, no filters no chemicals at all. So far, we have successfully applied APA as a standalone (or in clusters) solution, but not coupled in real-world environment with HVAC systems in buildings.

Laboratory tests have proven that APA-HVAC integration is not only possible, but can deliver the two above benefits of energy efficiency and air quality improvements at the same time, with enormous operations advantages as well as economic, environmental and people health benefits, all by applying the same APA water-based technology.

How is that possible? APA has the advantage to remove the widest range of air pollutants using simple water, the same water HVAC systems produce by internal condensation process, which today is wasted, instead APA can reuse that water. Moreover, by removing airborne particles before the air goes inside the HVAC filters, APA reduce drastically the inefficiencies and additional energy consumption, due to clogged filters, which can double in less than one year in existing HVAC systems.