MARINE HVAC SYSTEM - AGAINST VIRUSES > FRESH AIR! SAFETY AIR!

Suddenly the pandemic arrived causing millions of deaths, destroying many businesses and establishing a huge turmoil in the world economy! On top of that a great social inequality has been revealed and some negative rulers have been exposed!

Thankfully, there are scientists, doctors and engineers who are working very hard to mitigate the problem, looking for a vaccine or even developing products to support the recovery of the public health and the economy as well.

I'm thinking of alternatives to help bring this crap down! As an engineer my attention is on Universities and Companies that are already developing and testing special fabrics, aerosol media, composite filters in addition to the well known activated carbon filters and the use of UV lamps to improve air filtration to combat / hinder the spread of viruses, bacterias and ensure the good indoor air quality!

The types of business that I have been involved in since 1979 are being greatly affected during this pandemic, which are Oil & Gas Offshore Facilities, Shipbuilding and Offshore HVAC-R Manufacturing, Installation and Maintenance.

Crews and passengers are being easily contaminated and only the disease prevention protocols appear to be ineffective until now !

When I'm on board working with maintenance, I use to observe the conditions of the air filters in the Air Handling Units, the conditions and internal cleaning of the air mixing boxes, the cleaning of the air ducts, grilles and air diffusers, which generally are not in good conditions.

In today's scenario, sharing a cabin or toilet with one or three colleagues has become a major problem in platforms, rigs or ships. In addition, the design of central air conditioning systems as are conceived to date, seems to increase spreading of contamination through recirculated air.

I have talked to many other engineers on the subject, hitting the key that a good contribution to suppress the spread of any disease through the air should be the use of 100% of fresh air (no air recirculation) combined with effective and quality set of air filtration when these outbreaks happen!

My opinion is that the design and installations of the air conditioning systems need to be reconfigured.

Major retrofits must be be implemented in order to have the option of normal operation and operation in a crisis scenario like this one now!

The question is always the same; How about the costs?

Imagine the damage of the maritime leisure companies with their giant cruise ships moored at the pier?

How about the rigs and production platforms? A large number of workers have already been infected in the offshore facilities, despite having complied with testing the protocols. Two or three asymptomatic people on board are enough to start spreading the problem.

Take care with people, prevent the problem!

Think about to redesign the facilities (layout of cabins, deploy individual cabins with their dedicated HVAC systems).

The air conditioning system must offer fresh air modulation. In times of pandemic 100% fresh air, in normal times the use of the rates indicated by standards. Anything is possible, just apply good engineering with a good air balance, appropriate HVAC system and equipment.

Of course, profits and losses need to be put in the balance.

My compliments to all colleagues around the world who are looking for an engineering solution, while the vaccine does not arrive through scientists and doctors!

Better days will come up!

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