Personal Breeze Air Purifier
Allergens and other contaminants in public places adversely affect many people. Poor air quality results in reduced productivity at work, cross-contamination on airlines, and secondary infections in hospitals. Since a person's skin temperature is higher than the surrounding room, the air tends to rise, creating a stable vertical airstream around the person called a thermal plume. Due to this flow pattern, the air that a seated person typically breathes comes from his or her lap and feet, not from directly in front or to the side of the person. Because of this, general room air purifiers, which consume 200 Watts of power or more, often do not adequately clear the air that a person actually breathes, since this air originates at the floor, where pollutants are often concentrated. Also, for large rooms, such as open floor-plan offices and cubicles, room air purifiers are often too noisy and completely ineffective due to the large air volume.
One solution is the patented Personal Breeze air purifier system, developed by Propulsive Wing, LLC. Attached to the front of a table or office desk, the Personal Breeze creates a clean, refreshing zone of purified air for the user. Designed using computational fluid dynamics computer simulation tools, the Personal Breeze system allows anyone to breathe filtered air, regardless of the size of the room. And at only 2 Watts of power, it can run for hours using the built-in rechargeable battery, or indefinitely through a standard computer USB connection. The unit can also plug into a wall outlet with an AC adapter for quick-charging the battery.
Personal Breeze air purifier attached to office desk and computer simulation of the airflow around a seated person with the purifier turned on. The red lines show the contaminated air ingested into the purifier, while the blue lines show the filtered air leaving the device.
By attaching the Personal Breeze air purifier to the front of the desk, the person now enjoys a light, refreshing breeze of filtered air. Instead of allowing contaminants to flow freely up to the breathing zone, the airstream is interrupted, filtered, and then reinjected back into the natural thermal plume. This type of personal air purification results in the targeted delivery of filtered air to the user at a fraction the power consumption and noise of other methods.
Experimental Validation
Extensive testing was performed at the world-class facilities of the Building Energy and Environmental Systems Laboratory at Syracuse University under the direction of Professor Jensen Zhang, a leading expert in the field of indoor air quanity. Testing was performed with the Personal Breeze air purifier device mounted to a desk in front of a thermal manikin. Data was collected with the purifier turned on both directly at the outlet of the device, as well as with a sampling port located near the mouth of the manikin. The efficiency of the air purifier to remove unwanted particulates from the air was calculated by comparing the particle density values at these locations with the ambient levels in the test chamber. As expected, the efficiency dropped as the air traveled from the PAV outlet up to the breathing zone due to mixing. However, for particles greater than 0.3 micrometer (approximately the size of the smallest bacteria), the data showed that the exposure rate was consistently reduced by 40-50%. For larger particles (for example, dust, pollen, mold, etc.), the filters were shown to eliminate an even greater percentage of the contaminants.
Personal Breeze air purifier mounted in front of a thermal manikin during testing at the BEES Lab at Syracuse University.
The pictures below show the Personal Breeze air purifier system attached to an office desk and connected to a computer. The USB connection provides power and also allows control of the air purifier. The system comes with software that allows the user to interface with the device. Using the simple and intuitive GUI, the user controls fan speed, monitors battery charging, and place the unit into “breeze” mode, which modulates the airflow to simulate the random fluctuations in natural wind. The software also comes preinstalled with several soothing environmental soundtracks to further enhance the overall experience.
Propulsive Wing, LLC and Kumair are still looking for a manufacturing partner for the Personal Breeze air purifier system. If your organization has an interest in partnering or purchasing units call or email us. To read the development technical report, funded by the Syracuse Center of Excellence, click the pdf link to the right.
