Technologue Curing car COVID

Frank Markus Technologue

Curing Car COVID: Tech solutions to disinfecting shared cars

n May 2019, online insurance aggregator NetQuote

Idid a study swabbing vehicle interior touchpoints for bacteria in ride-hailing vehicles, rental cars, and taxis. It then compared those findings against cultures from a toilet seat. (Hint: Maybe don’t read this while eating your lunch.)

The results predictably tracked the level of oversight each industry gets: Taxis were 160 times germier than the toilet seat, and ride-hailing vehicles measured 219 times germier than the taxis.

We didn’t cover that story at the time, figuring only germaphobes of the Howard Hughes or Howie Mandel ilk would care. But now that we’re all hypersensitized to pathogens, three novel technologies for disinfecting shared vehicles caught my full attention.

The best-developed concept hails from Michigan-based supplier GHSP. Called Grenlite, it employs germicidal 254–264-nm-wavelength ultraviolet-C light that destroys nucleic acids (the NA in DNA) to stop the reproductive cycle of microorganisms and pathogens. This has long been used in sanitizing and sterilizing drinking water, hospital rooms, offices, airplanes, etc.

UV-C light is invisible and is far more damaging to humans and animals than the UV-A and UV-B light that sunscreen blocks (atmospheric ozone typically filters UV-C), so the space to be disinfected must be empty. Laser, xenon, fluorescent, or LED sources can generate UV-C, but GHSP expects LED will win out in terms of power, mass, cost, and ease of vehicle integration. Today’s fluorescent UV-C lamps and the ballasts that run them draw about 40–60 watts of power per unit, but LED promises to lower total power consumption.

GHSP’s Grenlite places high-power broadcast lamps above each seating row with additional low-power lamps focused on high-touch areas. And although a single LED can’t provide ambient and UV-C light, adjacent LEDs in the same fixture can simplify integration.

Aftermarket bolt-in Grenlite units currently used in ambulances (priced from $550 each for three or four units required) can require 20 minutes to kill all pathogens; smaller vehicles with integrated systems should require considerably less time (and cost). Onboard sensors inform the system when and how much disinfection is needed and when it’s safe to activate Grenlite. Cloud connectivity permits fleet tracking. GHSP has received an $80,000 grant to install its system in a fleet of autonomous shuttle vehicles in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But UV light only kills pathogens it shines on. What about germs sneezed into the shadows? Ozone gas—that weird smell you get when a light switch or car battery jumper cable sparks—is an unstable arrangement of three oxygen atoms, where one is eager to hop off and “oxidize” something. When it encounters a virus, that free-radical O atom penetrates the capsid protein shell encasing its genetic material and damages the viral RNA. It wreaks similar havoc on fungi, molds, pesticides, odors, and other potentially harmful substances. Testing recently proved it can neutralize COVID-19.

Meanwhile, supplier Magna is launching Puro, a device sized like a big cooler that electrically generates ozone gas and circulates it throughout the space with a fan for a 25- or 45-minute cycle during which an ozone concentration of 100 or 250 parts per million is achieved to decontaminate items like personal protective equipment placed inside. (Sports teams have used ozone to deodorize and sanitize equipment for years.)

Magna is now exploring options for scaling up Puro to decontaminate vehicle interiors. Because ozone is a lung irritant, the vehicle must remain closed and vacant during decontamination and long enough afterward for the ozone to decompose into molecular oxygen before use again. Magna Techform is poised to produce 1,100 Puro

devices per week at its Penetanguishene, Ontario plant.

Finally, Pratt Miller (of Corvette race-team fame) has a large-area autonomous disinfecting (LaaD) robot currently disinfecting the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in an overnight time frame. It employs electrostatic spray heads like those used in assembly plant paint shops to atomize negatively charged particles of an FDA-approved disinfecting material. The electrostatic charge causes the particles to cling to and disinfect all surfaces. Such devices could be used to disinfect autonomous shuttles robotically at a central depot while the vehicles are recharging.

As I write this, there’s no reliable forecast for when this pandemic will disappear. It’s good to know engineers are working on ways to help us remain safely mobile throughout it. Q

Disinfecting UV-C broadcast lamps shown integrated into a vehicle interior alongside the LED dome or reading lamps. Smaller units aimed at hightouch areas could be integrated with the accent lighting fixtures.