Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1278896
AUGUST 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 35 When all this stuff starts building up deep inside these coils, it restricts airflow as well as heat transfer. The system increases energy consumption and works much harder to get the original performance. To get through any depth of coil, we inject a chemical-free enzyme into the coils, and the enzymes start digesting all the bio—the bacteria, fungus, and all that stuff inside. The Blue Box patented process is this: you keep the air handler on while you in- ject the enzymes in as a foam face, which acts like shaving cream. The airflow just draws it in, almost sucking it through the coils. The single biggest pain point for any build- ing's operations is always the coils. It's the chokepoint of the entire building. Up to 70% of all the energy consumed in a high-rise build- ing goes to the HVAC system. Up to half that energy, sometimes even more, can be wasted simply because the coils are fouled up. By solving this problem–and it's such a sim- ple solution–you can now have a fundamen- tal effect on energy consumption, but you can also start looking at indoor air quality. As you know, indoor air quality is very significant with COVID-19 because we now know it's traveling through the HVAC system, and there's a big concern that it's ending up inside these coils. We've been brought into many major hospi- tals around the United States to remove all the biofilm and disinfect the coils in the hospitals. Some examples are Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City, which is the largest and oldest cancer hospital in the United States, if not the world; University of Texas MD Anderson Can- cer Center in Houston, Texas, which is probably the number two cancer hospital in the United States; Houston Methodist Hospital, which is a massive medical facility; Baylor Scott & White in Dallas, Texas; UCLA Medical Center; and University of Miami Medical Center. When you go into a hospital's air handlers, you can see stuff oozing out of the coils; it's that bad. That's because a hospital is a micro- bial-rich environment, and the coils load up so much more than a commercial building. Commercial buildings are filled with biofilm, but the level is just more extreme in hospitals. Before Blue Box, there wasn't much a hospi- tal could do. Now, they're able to get through their coiling, and we deliver perfect surface ar- ea coverage throughout that coil. I've modified the formulation to add in a re- ally powerful disinfectant called chlorine diox- ide. I first use the enzymes to remove all the biofilm because it will act as a protective nest for bacteria, fungi, and even viruses. That's a big concern with the coronavirus because it can land on a surface and live exposed for a few hours or even a couple of days. But if it lands in biofilm and is protected, there's a pretty good chance it could live and fester in the coils for an extended period of time. Bacte- ria in these large buildings will jump from air handler to air handler because it just gets in the air stream and then migrates throughout a building. We've been commercializing Blue Box for the last four years. We do 50% of the Las Ve- gas Strip. Some of our hotel clients include the MGM Resorts, the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, and Biofilm buildup on HVAC coils can harbor and spread bacteria and viruses throughout the building.