Uwe Reischl, a professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health, was a keynote speaker during the 13th Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Symposium. This year’s event was titled “Combating COVID-19 Pandemic with Science and Technology Innovation.” It was held virtually July 7-10, 2020, and was co-hosted by Donghua University in China and the University of Manchester in England.
Reischl presented the paper “COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment Sterilization System” based on a recently completed research and development project at Boise State and conducted in collaboration with Boise companies Obtainium LLC, and Reuseum, Inc. The new technology allows individuals and families to sterilize their face masks using ozone gas produced by a small battery-powered portable ozone generator. The paper illustrated the observed relationship between ozone equilibrium concentration for various chamber volumes and the corresponding ozone “half-life” parameters. The data is needed when selecting the optimal volume of an exposure chamber capable of accommodating personal protective equipment for sterilization against COVID-19.
You can learn more about Reischl’s do-it-yourself sterilizer method from a featured story that was published in May.