French automotive supplier Valeo has developed an air sterilizer for bus and coach cabins, which can eliminate more than 95% of viruses. The next step will be to adapt the new device, which Valeo describes as a "health shield," to automobiles.
The company claims that its new sterilizer, which makes use of ultraviolet light, is the most powerful of its kind for bus and coach cabins. The unit can eliminate more than 95% of viruses, including covid-19, as well as bacteria and mold particles circulating in the air inside vehicles. Designed to be in permanent operation when passengers are onboard, it will offer reassurance to travellers worried about the possibility of coming in contact with contagious diseases.
The UV Purifier, as it has been christened, can easily be integrated into standard air-conditioning systems, which stand to benefit from its use of ultraviolet light to kill germs and bacteria in the air.
Valeo has announced that the solution has already been tested and approved by the Institute of Medical Virology at the Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, and that the first units have now been installed in a number of buses by a coach builder in Brazil.
The new technology will soon be adapted for use in automobiles, which already have existing air-filtration systems that are effective against air pollution as well as germs and viruses from outside the vehicle cabin.
Watch a video on Valeo's UV Purifier: youtu.be/wvhLERUNOS0
