Development of a rapid plasma decontamination system for decontamination and reuse of filtering facepiece respirators
Development of a rapid plasma decontamination system for decontamination and reuse of filtering facepiece respirators
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a high demand for filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), which has brought global challenges in sustaining the supply chain for FFRs. Because respirators are basic personal protective equipment to protect frontline healthcare workers against COVID-19, the chronic, global shortage of N95/N99 masks is one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives from the coronavirus. The reuse of masks may need to be considered as a crisis capacity strategy to ensure continued availability even though most of the masks are considered one-time use. Moreover, environmentalists warn that single-use masks add to the glut of plastic pollution, threatening the health of oceans and marine life. In this study, we develop a method to decontaminate respirators to reuse filtering facepiece respirators. Samples of SARS-CoV-2 are applied to the 4 × 4 cm2 samples of FFP2 and FFP3 respirator materials. The filtration efficiency of plasma treated samples is measured using a planar particle image velocimetry technique with a neutrally charged polydisperse aerosol particle of NaCl. The measured viral decontamination and filtration efficiencies show that the developed plasma decontamination system can achieve a 4-log reduction for the coronavirus without reducing the filtration efficiency of masks after 5-min plasma exposure. The developed plasma decontamination system demonstrates the feasibility to tackle the acute shortages of FFRs in many countries and their environmental and economic burdens against discarding reusable masks.
COVID-19, Decontamination, Non-thermal plasma, Plasma
Kim, Minkwan
18ed9a6f-484f-4a7c-bf24-b630938c1acc
Lawson, John
4e0b1895-51c5-41e6-9322-7f79e76e0e4c
Herve, Rodolphe
9baddc65-93cf-4a18-9388-088d60572b06
Jakob, Henrike
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Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram
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Keevil, Charles
cb7de0a7-ce33-4cfa-af52-07f99e5650eb
October 2021
Kim, Minkwan
18ed9a6f-484f-4a7c-bf24-b630938c1acc
Lawson, John
4e0b1895-51c5-41e6-9322-7f79e76e0e4c
Herve, Rodolphe
9baddc65-93cf-4a18-9388-088d60572b06
Jakob, Henrike
aaeaf38d-e211-44d4-80a1-0d6f205152da
Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram
5e69099f-2f39-4fdd-8a85-3ac906827052
Keevil, Charles
cb7de0a7-ce33-4cfa-af52-07f99e5650eb
Kim, Minkwan, Lawson, John, Herve, Rodolphe, Jakob, Henrike, Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram and Keevil, Charles
(2021)
Development of a rapid plasma decontamination system for decontamination and reuse of filtering facepiece respirators.
AIP Advances, 11 (10), [105311].
(doi:10.1063/5.0067730).
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a high demand for filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), which has brought global challenges in sustaining the supply chain for FFRs. Because respirators are basic personal protective equipment to protect frontline healthcare workers against COVID-19, the chronic, global shortage of N95/N99 masks is one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives from the coronavirus. The reuse of masks may need to be considered as a crisis capacity strategy to ensure continued availability even though most of the masks are considered one-time use. Moreover, environmentalists warn that single-use masks add to the glut of plastic pollution, threatening the health of oceans and marine life. In this study, we develop a method to decontaminate respirators to reuse filtering facepiece respirators. Samples of SARS-CoV-2 are applied to the 4 × 4 cm2 samples of FFP2 and FFP3 respirator materials. The filtration efficiency of plasma treated samples is measured using a planar particle image velocimetry technique with a neutrally charged polydisperse aerosol particle of NaCl. The measured viral decontamination and filtration efficiencies show that the developed plasma decontamination system can achieve a 4-log reduction for the coronavirus without reducing the filtration efficiency of masks after 5-min plasma exposure. The developed plasma decontamination system demonstrates the feasibility to tackle the acute shortages of FFRs in many countries and their environmental and economic burdens against discarding reusable masks.
Text
AAIDBI-000011-105311_1
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More information
Submitted date: 19 August 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 October 2021
Published date: October 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/V051679/1). We acknowledge Air Filtration Solutions Ltd. for technical guidance on FFR performance measurements and JSP Limited for kindly supplying FFP2/FFP3 respirator samples.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Author(s).
Keywords:
COVID-19, Decontamination, Non-thermal plasma, Plasma
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 451736
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451736
ISSN: 2158-3226
PURE UUID: 2f5377fc-1bb2-4401-8563-dc2ccecf4ba0
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Date deposited: 22 Oct 2021 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:53
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Author:
Henrike Jakob
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