IIT Roorkee develops sterilisation system for everyday accessories to reduce transmission of COVID-19

The product has uses in government, private offices, airports, educational institutes, shopping malls, among others to disinfect common items

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) has developed a continuously operated sterilisation system for everyday accessories to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19.

 This machine can be used for the disinfection of common-use accessories such as electronic gadgets (mobiles, watches, wireless gadgets) and metallic and plastic accessories (wallets, keys, spectacles, bags).

 The designed product has uses in government and private offices, airports, educational institutes, shopping malls, among others to disinfect the common items. The prototype of the system has been handed over to the Haridwar Municipal Corporation for their use.

Narendra Singh Bhandari, Commissioner, Haridwar Municipal Corporation, said, “In this challenging situation numerous protective measures are been taken by people like masks, sanitisers but we felt the need for disinfecting accessories which are routinely carried by the common public like mobiles, wallet, keys, documents / files, etc. This will be a boon to every public sector office which are open 24×7 and thus demands more protective measures to be taken. So we requested IIT Roorkee and shared the idea for which they promptly responded and started working on it. Tanvir Singh Marwah (Alumni of the Institution, and Assistant Municipal Commissioner) coordinated the same with IIT Roorkee on behalf of Haridwar Municipal Corporation. We are thankful to IIT Roorkee for their expertise and support in making this venture successful.”

The product consists of an ultra-violet chamber equipped with a moving system which helps in carrying the object in and out of the sterilisation system. It has been designed, in line with the International Standards and Scientific Literature on the use of ultraviolet radiation for sterilisation. The product, by design and operation, takes care of all the health hazards associated with the use of the UV light.

Prof Ajit Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee commended the team for its efforts. He said, “IIT Roorkee has been striving to contribute whatever is feasible during this pandemic. Under the current situation, this machine would play a useful role in blocking the transmission of coronavirus through common accessories.”

The continuously operated sterilisation system has been designed by a team consisting of Prof Vimal Chandra Srivastava, Department of Chemical Engineering; and his research group students namely Navneet Kumar, Rohit Chauhan, and Dr Swati Verma.

The prototype was conceptualised, designed, locally fabricated in Roorkee, and tested within a period of 20-days of lockdown. A patent is also being filed for the developed system. The team will improvise and scale up the production of this system in line with the feedback of the market.

“This is a one-of-a-kind product which can disinfect common accessories and significantly reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19. The highlight of this steriliser is that it is operated in continuous mode for non-stop screening of common-use accessories. All the UV sterilisers available in the market, till now, are table-top or batch mode sterilisers,” said Professor Srivastava.