Freudenberg Filtration Tech launches vehicle cabin air filters in India

In the wake of the continuing concern about Covid-19 infection, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies, a part of Freudenberg Group has announced the launch of its vehicle cabin air filters in India, which it claims has proved 100 percent effective against surfaces strained with viruses including SARS-CoV-2.

Backing its claim, the company said the product has been subjected to ISO18184 testing by China-based GuangZhou Institute of Microbiology in May 2020. As per a statement released by the company, its micronAir filters successfully wards off virus and this could help reducing the risk of infection inside the vehicles. According to the company, the first step to prevent viral airborne aerosols from causing harm is to directly filter them from the ambient air and secondly to inactivate the critical virus load by an anti-viral filter media layer.

 Ashok Pandey, Head, Automotive Filters at Freudenberg Filtration Technologies, India pointed out, “To reach this vital goal, our micronAir cabin air filters follow a two- pronged approach. Our cabin air filter solution captures aerosol droplets and droplet nuclei within the range of 0.05 μm to 16 μm. As the latest Covid-19 studies of the World Health Organization (WHO) showed, these aerosols contain the critical virus load, causing harm as they are emitted during breathing, talking, coughing or sneezing. Once captured on the filter, the viruses are inactivated through a patented approach based on natural fruit extracts to prevent secondary contamination.”

In recirculation mode, removing viruses from the air largely depends on the efficiency of the filtration system and the air exchange rate. Automotive interior filters which Freudenberg manufactures for cars can filter roughly more than 90 percent of the viral aerosols. The first two layers capture most of the ultrafine aerosols. The optional third layer captures harmful gases. The innovative fourth layer coated with fruit extract then inactivates almost 100 percent of the detected viral load, preventing the release of active virus back into the cabin air following vibration. The company reiterated that this has been demonstrated in a series of comprehensive tests carried out in cooperation with an independent external research institute.