Ventilating classrooms and other communal areas vertically can significantly reduce the spread of Covid-19. This is according to inventor and CEO Norbert Vroege of Goflow. In horizontal ventilation, polluted air actually passes everyone in the room.

In operating theatres, ventilation is already vertical, i.e. from the ceiling to the floor. Otherwise, patients on the operating table can become contaminated with viruses or contract infections. However, in the remaining 99 per cent of ventilation systems, air is moved horizontally through the room. This means that that air passes everyone in that room. If there are people present who are infected with the coronavirus, there is a good chance they could infect other people through the ventilation.

In May, Vroege started a search for a safer way to ventilate and came up with the idea for an easy-to-install vertical ventilation system. With his team, he developed a new technology within six months. According to Vroege, the system can be installed in any building within a day.

Class

The Goflow system comprises 4 elements

1. A system floor with adjustable air supply that allows a laminar air flow through permanent overpressure.
2. A suspended ceiling that allows permanent negative pressure.
3. A modular air handling unit that energy efficiently introduces clean air under the floor and discharges it through the ceiling. The air handling unit is equipped with a pre-heating heat exchanger and a HEPA filtration system.
4. A sensor that monitors the indoor environment for CO2, temperature, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, humidity, light and noise.

Installing

According to Vroege, Goflow's modular setup makes it easy to install in any room that is high enough. In fact, the floor rises as much as 20 centimetres.

The air handling unit is made up of eight elements, each of which can be lifted by two people, allowing it to be placed in any conceivable space. The ceiling panels are 60 by 60 cm and therefore fit into existing suspended ceilings. The floor panels are the same size and can be cut to size to fill every conceivable corner.

"With four installers, the entire Goflow system in an average-sized office space can be installed within a day."

In the Netherlands, Goflow Technology and its partner companies first want to improve ventilation in schools. This is often found to be poor and many pupils get infected with COVID-19. The Ministry of Education has therefore allocated 360 million euros to adapt ventilation systems. Furthermore, Early wants to supply nursing homes and care centres.

Free

The inventor would prefer the whole world to start venting vertically. Because Vroege and his team want to keep the focus on developing and sharing the technology, he wants to share the technology with all international parties on socially responsible terms and even give it away for free to governments and organisations in developing countries.

The Goflow information is available upon registration and accreditation of an interested party. "I think it is important for everyone to have access to this as soon as possible. Therefore, anyone who wants to make the world a better place can request the technology from us and then make it themselves under licence."

Source: https://www.engineersonline.nl/nieuws/id33655-covid-te-lijf-met-verticaal-ventilatiesysteem.html