Bengaluru: It
was the mid-1990s. Months after Yogi Goswami migrated from his hometown Delhi
to the US for a career in solar energy, he found his little son Dilip
struggling with asthma. Yogi, now a professor at the University of South
Florida, began his research for a new technology as no existing air purifier
provided a proper solution to poor indoor air quality.
Twenty years
later, when pollution has become a problem in most parts of the world, his
family has found a probable solution: Molekule. Pegged as the world’s first air
purifier that completely destroys harmful pollutants— existing technology only
traps such particles—the new device has made it to the list of Time magazine’s
top 25 inventions.
“HEPA ((high
efficiency particulate absorber) filters remain the standard technology in
existing air purifiers and, unfortunately, many harmful pollutants are too
small for HEPA filters to trap. Larger pollutants like bacteria and mold may be
collected by such filters, but they remain on the filter surface, multiply and
are released back into the air. Because Molekule actually destroys even the smallest
pollutants, they are permanently removed from the air you breathe,” said Jaya
Goswami Rao, Yogi’s daughter and chief operating officer of Molekule.
Yogi obtained
his degree in mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering before
moving to the US. Dilip and Jaya were born in Greensboro, North Carolina. The
siblings co-founded Molekule to convert the patented technology developed by
Yogi into a consumer product. Their purifier uses patented Photo
Electrochemical Oxidation (PECO) technology, basically a light-activated nano
filter to create a catalytic reaction on the surface of the filter that breaks
down pollutants at the molecular level. Allergens, mold, bacteria and viruses
are all destroyed by this process, and it removes microscopic pollutants 1,000
times smaller than a HEPA filter can.
She claimed that
thirdparty laboratories like the University of Minnesota and the Aerosol
Research Engineering Laboratory have extensively tested and verified the
technology. Also, a 49-person study with allergy sufferers over a four-week
period was conducted. The company raised $10.1 million as funding this year.
“Since then, we’ve sold thousands of units to consumers,” Jaya said, without
revealing actual numbers. Each unit costs $800.
As cliched as it
may sound, Molekule proves that necessity is the mother of invention. Pointing
out how he suffered from debilitating asthma and allergies as a child, Dilip
says: “I guess you could say that I was Molekule’s first customer!”
Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA-10th December,2017
