A new air sterilization unit developed recently to clean air by coupling UV radiation with wide angle (WA) HEPA filter and quartz screen will furthermore be redesigned, and reconstructed to increase by, at least, two times the clean air delivery rate (CADR) to 800-1000 m3/hr. The new unit will be installed and tested in the interior space of an industrial unit producing meat products and charcuteries (CRETA FARMS). Moreover, the internal pore surface of HEPA filters and quartz screen will be covered by photocatalyst nanoparticles to increase by several orders of magnitude the photo-oxidation and decomposition rate for the pathogens captured on the pore surface of filtering media. The morphological & 
physicochemical properties of photocatalyst-coated filters will be correlated with the pathogen oxidation rates and air filter permeability. The potential of the air sterilization system to enhance the food safety and satisfy the high standards of legislation will be tested in an industrial environment with systematic parametric analyses to determine the conditions (UV) wavelength, air velocity, material types) that maximize the pathogen removal efficiency. The longevity and potential regeneration of the filters with and without photocatalyst as well as the status (active, non-active) of captured pathogens (bacterial, fungi) will be examined on filter inlet surface. The efficiency of the various components of the device will be measured separately (WA HEPA filter, UV, UV/filter, UV/filter/quartz screen, UV/filter/quartz screen/ photocatalyst) to understand and quantify their individual contribution and interactive effects on capturing, oxidizing and removing the various pathogens (bacteria, fungi). The optimization of the performance of each individual unit with respect to the selection of photocatalyst type and coating method will be done by processing data collected by multivariate statistical analysis and an artificial neural network. The optimization of the operation all units installed in the factory with their potential repositioning will be based on analyses of the flow regimes and micro-organism depletion by using computational fluid dynamics.
Project Τitle: AIR STERILIZATION- ANTIMICROBIAL PROTECTION IN FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (AIRSTERIL)
Project Duration: 12 months (1 June 2025 – 31 May 2026)
Project URL: https://airuvsterile.gr
Project Framework & Funding: SUB1.1: Clusters of Research Excellence (CREs), 345 250 €
Scientific coordinator (UNIWA): Georgios Nikolaidis
Consortium – Partners:
- SPECIAL ACCOUNT FOR RESEARCH FUNDS UNIVERSITY OF WEST ATTICA
- KRETA FARM FOOD S.A.
