Post COVID-19 HVAC System for Sustainable Virus Free Clean Air

Due to the globally occurring recurring waves of COVID-19, a major part of which is taking place through droplet and aerosolized mode of transmission within the indoor environment, it is of utmost importance to design new mode of indoor ventilation system which should be energy economic in one hand and should be capable of preventing indoor transmission of COVID-19 on the other hand. A novel concept of such post-COVID-19 HVAC system to provide virus free clean air for indoor environment in sustainable way is presented in this article. The concept is developed based on the published evidence from the literature. The proposed HVAC system consists of several integral components, such as, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation- and hydroxyl radical-based air purifier unit, MOFs- and nanowire-based air filtration unit and MOFs- and encapsulated phase change material-based hybrid desiccant air conditioning unit. Concept of personalized space ventilation is also proposed to ensure proper isolation between the building occupants. The proposed system is expected to be energy efficient in providing ventilation and thermal comfort for in large indoor spaces, e.g. office floors, restaurants, and patient isolation rooms in health care facilities. Funding Information: This work was supported by JST-CREST Grant No. JPMJCR17I3, Japan Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.