Varied Applications

The company offers a number of air purification products for the residential, commercial, and industrial markets. Many of these products are used in buildings where air purification is absolutely necessary.

For example, Abatement Technologies provides a line of HEPA-filtered products for health care facilities that create negative-pressure environments to cleanse the air of airborne pathogens. The manufacturer also provides a line of products to be used when removing asbestos and lead from buildings.

There are other uses and applications for air purification systems that may not be so obvious.

Bill Rollinger is the owner of Indian River Sportsman Indoor Shooting Range in Vero Beach, FL. Rollinger’s business was in need of a filtration system due to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines.

When you shoot a gun, more than the bullet is fired from the chamber. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), lead particles, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide can all be byproducts from firing a gun. These byproducts, according to the EPA, cannot be exhausted to the outdoors.

“We wanted to make sure we had what we needed to filter out the air,” said Rollinger.

But Rollinger found it challenging to find an air filtration system that would handle all the particles that needed to be eliminated. A HEPA filter was needed to take care of the lead in the air, and different types of filtration were also needed to get rid of odors and gas contaminants.

Another challenge for Rollinger was that any filtration system that he found that could do the job turned out to be either too big or too expensive. Then a friend recommended Abatement Technologies.

Rollinger worked with Diane Fort, Abatement’s sales manager for IAQ products. This was not the first time that the company had supplied air filtration systems to a target range. According to Fort, the manufacturer helped Rollinger choose a system and also helped with sizing and design. After working out the specifics with Fort, Rollinger selected several CAP1200 Central Air Purification models.

The Setup

According to Fort, the model was used because it can filter up to 1,100-cfm airflow through four stages of filtration.

The first- and second-stage filters can capture visible particles. The third stage is a Vapor-Lock™ carbon filter that gets rid of odor, vapor, and gas absorption. “The carbon filtration can take out gases and get microscopic particulates of lead coming off the pistols,” said Fort.

The fourth stage is the HEPA filter, which is designed to have a 99.97% efficiency rate and can capture particulates as small as 0.3 microns, the company says.

Rollinger’s target range is divided into two sides with five firing lanes on each side. A CAP1200 was suspended above each lane, and an air conditioning unit was installed behind where the shooter stands. The air conditioning unit and the filtration system work to push the smoke and lead particulates away from the shooters and up toward the ceiling.

According to Fort, this filter is designed for installation in a partial-bypass configuration on the return side of an hvac system. In this instance, however, the CAP1200 was used as a free-standing system.

Rollinger said that the installation was not difficult and that part of the minimal upkeep is making sure the filters are changed. He explained that some of the filters can be changed every week and the HEPA filter lasts close to a year.

Sidebar: Trion Introduces New Modular Air Purifier Cell

SANFORD, NC — Trion, Inc., headquartered here, announces its latest product research and development achievement, the Infinity Modular Air Purifier Cell.

The maker of air purification and humidification products for industrial and commercial applications calls its new product “a next generation air cleaning and purification system.” According to Trion, its new Cell complies with ASHRAE filtration standards, consistently maintains an air-cleaning efficiency rating up to 99%, “and can reduce energy costs due to the system’s capacity to maintain a pressure drop of just 0.25.”

The company says its new Cell was specifically engineered for applications such as institutions, multi-story office buildings, hospitals, schools, universities, airports, malls, indoor stadiums, arenas, and hotels. It says its product acts as an integral part of the air-handling system(s) and has many installation options.

“Whether you’re talking about a brand new building under construction or a building in its 50th year of operation and fully occupied, the Infinity Modular Air Purifier Cell offers flexible installation options because it is designed to replace a building’s existing hvac media filtration system,” said Craig Ellis, Trion’s director of Sales and Marketing.

According to Ellis, with the Cell’s patent-pending electrostatic design, a building’s air-handling system can go “from just simply filtering the air to actually cleaning and purifying the air without causing a drop in fresh air ventilation airflow or increasing energy costs.”

Publication date: 07/23/2001