MORRISVILLE – A Triangle firm is getting ready to roll out an arsenal of disinfection products that use “groundbreaking” air plasma technology to kill COVID-19.

Morrisville-based APJeT says its patent-pending technology, tested by an outside lab, has already achieved “100 percent kill rates” on a human coronavirus surrogate.

Now it’s ready to bring its innovation to market by introducing four new products.

They include: an air disinfection device (the COVIDINATOR) to be incorporated with existing and new HVAC systems; a stand-alone air disinfection system; a “wand” for treating surfaces; and a “kill box” for article disinfection.

“Manufacturing of air disinfection units are underway with product delivery beginning in the [first quarter],” APJeT’s CEO Bentley Park told WRAL TechWire.

“Surface disinfection production will begin scale-up in the [second quarter].”

How it works is fairly straightforward: APJeT’s systems use cold plasma technology to break down the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in air into individual atoms.

When these atoms recombine with the moisture in air, the company says they create what are known as “reactive species” that destroy viruses, bacteria and fungi.

APJeT says independent testing at ResInnova Laboratories showed that its “wand” achieved a complete “kill’ on a human coronavirus surrogate when applied for 90 seconds. Compare that to other widely used methods such as Ultraviolet-C light or bipolar ionization that only achieved a 99.9 percent kill rate.

“The incremental difference in APJeT achieving a 100 percent ‘kill’ rate means that people are 1,000 times less likely to become infected when air plasma technology is applied versus the most advanced technology that’s currently available,” said Park. “It’s game-changing.”

Pivoting in the age of COVID
APJeT was founded in 2002 at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In 2008, the company formed a development partnership with N.C. State University’s College of Textiles, where it operated until 2015.

Its current location is in the Research Triangle Park.

Historically, its proprietary atmospheric plasma technology has been utilized for the polymerization of monomeric coatings on materials in the textile industry. When the pandemic hit early last year, Park said the company began research applying plasma technology to the disinfection of pathogens.

He says the company is sponsored by Centripetal Capital Partners with a current capital raise of $3.6 million in process to fund manufacturing working capital.

He expects its technology to be widely used in hospitals, offices and schools, along with the airline, cruise, and hotel industries, which have been among the hardest hit by the current pandemic.

“The company has [already] received orders from the aviation industry to disinfect plane interiors between passenger loadings,” Park said.