There are basically two ways to categorize the air in relation to space. These are the indoor and outdoor air. Although both are not pollutant free, the outdoor air is the more purified and safer of the two.
Once trapped within an enclosure such as a room or an office, dust particles and other particulate matter and substances which pollute the air find it difficult to rejuvenate.
This makes the indoor air twice or even three times more risky and unhealthful than the outdoor air except when treated. Cold Plasma air purifier cleans and sterilizes the air by emitting bipolar ions which trap pollutants in the room, neutralize and attract them to the plasma filter where they are later cleansed off.
Plasma air purifiers use bipolar positive and negative ions (H+ and -O2) to sterilize the air and make it fresh and free from pollutants of all kinds for breathing.
In this article, I’m going to take you through the plasma air purifier and how it works. I will also answer your most pressing questions about the plasma air purifier, including how it helps to clean the air, and whether plasma air purifiers create ozone.
Plasma Air Purifier: How It Works?
The plasma air purifier is built in the imitation of lightning and thunder. The air around us is naturally filled with many pollutants such as dust and bacterias. During thunderstorms, heavy ions are released or emitted into the atmosphere where they serve to lower the concentration of these pollutants and freshen the air we breathe through complex systems of oxidation.
This is the same way the plasma air purifier serves to purify indoor air.
Plasma air purifiers work by emitting bipolar positive and negative ions (H+ and -O2) to filter the air and neutralize it from harm and pollutants, making it free and fresh for breathing.
The plasma air purifier works on the principles of ion emission, electric technology attraction and the filters which can be glass filters.
The charges emitted by the plasma air purifier are positive ions and negative ions. Ions themselves exist in atomic or molecular forms and contain electrical charges. These ions have a short but very active life span of between thirty to three hundred seconds before the charges in them are lost. By nature, irons are cleansing agents.
When these ions are emitted by the plasma purifier, they exit in disordered forms, being incomplete and therefore seeking to gain completion by attracting germs, bacterias, viruses, fumes odours and other pollutants which have the charges the ions are lacking. When they are bound with these pollutants, the pollutants become too heavy and thereby get trapped in the plasma filter.
The filters of plasma air purifiers are very small and can attract and hold down very tiny particulate matter which can be missed by other types of air filters. This makes the plasma air purifier one the best air filtration methods.
Do Plasma Air Purifiers Create Ozone?
Ozone is formed by the bounding of three oxygen atoms. The molecule formed is highly reactive and can bound with some other compounds in the air to form entirely different molecules. While some air purifiers produce these ozones as by-products, others use it as a primary oxidation means for air purification.
Either way, ozone has been identified by both the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization to be a pollutant. It becomes necessary therefore that even as we save to purchase air purifiers, we are aware of which is ozone-free or non-ozone free.
Plasma air purifiers are not ozone free.
Yes, plasma air purifiers create ozone by discharging electrical charged ions to attract opposite charges by which pollutants are made. Through this process of adding electrical charges to the air some free oxygen molecules are caused to become ozone.
Plasma air purifiers create ozone as they function. The ozone produced by plasma air purifiers is generated during the electrical discharge process.
During this discharge, oxygen is oxidized into elemental oxygen which gets attached to the oxygen around. This way, ozone is generated by plasma air purifiers. The quantity of ozone produced is however very minimal, and said to be almost without danger to human health, especially when installed in a large room or public space.
Most countries set the standard air quality for ozone. In the European Union, it has to come under 120 µg/ m³, 8 hours daily maximization. In the US, the Environment Protection Agency sets it at 0.08 ppm for the same averaged daily 8 hours. However, the density of ozone in the air remains at 0.003ug/ m³ per hour when the plasma air purifier is working.
How Plasma Air Purifiers Help To Clean Air?
The major instruments the plasma air purifier uses to clean the air are the filter, and the emitted positive and negative electrical ions.
Plasma air purifier helps to clean the air by emitting both positive and negative ions with same makeup of water, which enables them to separate and rejoin around pollutants and get them trapped within the plasma filter built to effectively achieve about 99.97% air filtration by removing pollutants from the air and making the air free and fresh for breathing.
The filter of plasma air purifiers is HEPA fitted. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HPA) filters are filters equipped with a great capacity to filter small particles. HEPA filters can remove upwards of 99.9% of the particles from the air which stream through them. The filter is made up of some meshes of synthetic fibre. The fibres are equally arranged in sizes and shapes which enable them to intercept micro organisms and particulate matter.
The efficiency of the plasma air purifier reaches 99.9% of the total penetrating particles that enter it, bringing out totally fresh and free air for breathing.
With these, the plasma air purifier helps clean the air in three major ways.
- Dust removal: particulate matter as tiny as dust can be interacted with and diffused by a negative oxygen ion emitted by plasma air purifier. This is what it does to dust settled in the room or randomly circulating the room.
- Air deodorization: harmful smells in the room can be removed by plasma air purifier. This restores a fresh and natural smell to the room.
- Air sterilization: of course, the major function of all air purifiers is to sterilize the air. Plasma air purifier is usually described as a physical means of filtration in that the positive and negative ions which are emitted in the process have the capacity to attract the pollutants, be they bacterias or virus; to add to their weight and draw then to the filters where they are then trapped and the air is made real fresh and clean.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Should I Go For Plasma Air Purifiers And Not Other Types Of Air Purifiers?
Compared with other types of air filters, plasma air filters are the most effective method of filtration.
It is able to achieve about 99.97% air sterilization efficiency using smaller filters and HEPA that capture very minimal pollutants that would ordinarily be missed by other types of purifiers.
Plasma air purifiers are also low-cost and low-maintenance because the filters do not need to be changed regularly but cleaned or dusted.
Plasma air purifiers are also very energy efficient, generally requiring less electricity to function than other purifiers.
Are plasma air purifiers safe?
Answer: Yes. Plasma air purifier uses the bipolar negative and positive ion emission technique with minimal and below harmful ozone emissions.
Unlike the other types of air purifiers like ionizers which intentionally use ozone as primary instrument of air purification thereby increasing the risk level of respiratory diseases, plasma air purifiers emit a very minimal and insignificant amount of ozone that is way below hazard levels. This makes the plasma air purifier safe for your home.
Which Is The Best Air Purifier?
The High Efficiency Particulate Air is the best air purifier. The reason is that HEPA has an efficiency rate of above 99.97% through air interception, air diffusion and inertia impaction.
Removing these pollutants can lead to increased health benefits such as better sleep quality and increased life expectancy.
Is Plasma Air Purifier The Same As An Ionizer?
No. Plasma air purifiers and ionizers are not the same.
Plasma air purifiers use bipolar negative and positive ions to sterilize the air.
Some ionizers use the bipolar ions while others use only negative ions to force pollutants together and weigh pollutants down on surfaces.
Either way, ionizers emit more ozones than plasma air purifiers and thus pose more health risks than plasma air purifiers.
Conclusion
Plasma air purifiers use bipolar positive and negative ions (H+ and -O2) to sterilize the air and make it fresh and free from pollutants of all kinds for breathing.
These two ions work by attaching themselves to the surface of the air pollutants, forming Hydroxyls through removing hydrogen from the structure of air.
This mechanism results in air pollutants being removed allowing the ions to use the missing Hydrogen ion that got removed out of the structure of the air pollutants to recycle as air moisture. This way, plasma air purifiers reduce viruses and bacterias from the air, deodorizes the air, reduces static electricity and achieves a 99.9% sterilization of the air.
