Indoor air quality for health and vertical farming in Iowa

GREENandSAVE staff

Posted on Thursday 21st July 2022
Indoor air quality for Iowa

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COVID-19 woke up America and the world to the need for improved indoor air quality

IAQ Technologies LLC is your “One-Stop-Shop” for proven and cost effective germicidal disinfection of air and surfaces across the commercial and residential landscape. We also provide Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to further help reduce the spread of Covid-19 and future viruses. In short, we focus on creating safe, healthy, and also energy efficient “smart” properties. We have developed a consortium of industry professionals, manufacturers, and installers, so that we can recommend and provide the most appropriate disinfection solutions for a diverse range of facilities in the US and around the world. We also offer $0 upfront cost options and turn-key projects that include rebate administration for the growing number of incentives launched following the Covid-19 outbreak. Beyond buildings, indoor air quality is very important for Controlled Environment Agriculture, and specifically advanced Vertical Farming

To learn more about indoor air quality in Iowa and other states,  Contact Indoor Air Quality team. 

Here is an example of Indoor air quality information for Iowa:

Iowa State research using UV light produces safer, cleaner air that ‘smells like toothpaste’

Breathing cleaner air has become more relevant than ever in the last few years. What if, along with cleaner air, it smelled fresh and minty, too?

For Iowa State University Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Professor Jacek Koziel, studying how to have clean air and reduce odor is nothing new. He has been in pursuit of healthy air quality for the last 15 years, using ultraviolet light to filter out airborne pathogens and produce air that ends up smelling like toothpaste.

Koziel has a unique angle for his ultraviolet light research. With a focus on animal and agricultural worker health, his primary goal started with improving the air quality and reducing odor in barns, farms or other areas with a high population of animals. Improving air quality in livestock facilities is beneficial for many reasons: the workers and animals in the barn have fresher air to breathe, the odor that floats out of the barn is reduced, and at least some of gaseous emissions can be mitigated before being released into the atmosphere.

Koziel is now teaming up with Kryton Engineered Metals Inc., a metal spinning and fabricating company in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Together, through the Iowa State University Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS), they upgraded a box that filters airborne dust particles, including bacteria and other pathogens, from large, indoor spaces.

Koziel and his team engineered this box with several filters and UV light, a spectrum of light with wavelengths that are too short for the human eye to detect. As particles move through the box, they reduce more than 95 percent of airborne pathogens and total particulate matter, or PM, a type of air pollution with potential to cause asthma and other health problems.

“This box is a double-barrier system that not only removes dust upfront, but using ultraviolet light, also removes any bacteria or viruses that are still alive and make it through the filters,” Koziel said.

With the system that Koziel is implementing now, not only will the quality of air be safer, but it will smell better. His recent research at the Iowa State Swine Nutrition Research Farm showed that the ultraviolet light technology removes odor even in fast-moving air. Once illuminated with UV light, it will come into contact with outside air with a minty scent, similar to the smell of toothpaste.

The ultraviolet light’s role in odor removal is actually what started his UV light research, according to Koziel.

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