The US is setting record highs for new infections, recording more than 100,000 new cases each day, while the UK is braced for ongoing restrictions once England’s lockdown ends in early December.
Reports of vaccines with success rates of 90% and 95% have provided some welcome good news, but the outbreak is nonetheless expected to last into the new year and beyond.
Faced with the ongoing crisis, the IMechE’s Covid-19 Task Force has released a new Covid-19 Manual for Engineers. The online document highlights work being undertaken in a range of areas, from virus transmission to air cleaning, and looks at how biomedical engineering is contributing to management of the pandemic. The manual provides examples of best practice for engineers seeking to make workplaces and travelling safer.
Here are three ways engineers are helping to save lives.
Providing fresh air
Good ventilation can reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in buildings, and mechanical engineers are key to ensuring it. Ventilation specialists carefully consider how buildings are used to determine whether a current system is working and if it needs upgrading. They might decide that limitations must be imposed, such as reduced occupancy numbers.
The IMechE has published guidance which can assist engineers and others to consider options for safe re-opening of buildings, while highlighting the challenges involved.
Improved installations can come at a cost – a full fresh air system uses much more energy, for example. “Moving from a minimum fresh air system to, say, one that has six air changes of fresh air, would increase annual energy consumption by around 400% depending on building types, systems and building factors,” the manual says.
Despite being known about for a long time, ultraviolet light for germicidal irradiation (UVGI) was not widely adopted in the UK before the outbreak. “There appears to have been some resistance to it from microbiologists who prefer filtration,” the manual says, but a combination of both might be best.
UVGI has been applied since the start of the pandemic to overcome serious infection outbreaks. A portable UVGI unit, for example, can be simply wheeled into position and plugged into a standard 240V electrical supply. Air-suspended Sars-Cov-2 is “reasonably easy to inactivate” using UV light at 254nm, according to research referenced in the manual.
Safe travels
While international travel has been massively reduced, engineers working for aircraft operators and manufacturers have worked to make flying as safe as possible.
Boeing led the way with several innovations mentioned in the IMechE manual, including the application of UV light in a self-disinfecting toilet and a portable 222nm UVC ‘wand’. The self-contained apparatus resembles a carry-on suitcase, the manual says. “Crews can pass UV light over high-touch surfaces, sanitising everywhere the light reaches. The UV wand is particularly effective in compact spaces and sanitises a flight deck in less than 15 minutes.”
The aerospace giant is also evaluating anti-microbial coatings that make it harder for viruses to grow and spread.
Biomedical solutions
Ventilator Challenge UK was the most successful ventilator project carried out for the government’s Ventilator Challenge, providing the NHS with 13,437 ventilators, but other organisations showed their ability to rapidly innovate with the development of brand-new designs.
Ultimately, the requirement was thankfully less than initially anticipated and Ventilator Challenge UK’s production scale-up was sufficient. None of the new designs were put through the emergency approval process, but the work was “a fantastic demonstration of what the country's engineering community is capable of when faced with such a challenge,” the manual says.
Elsewhere, bioengineers at DNA Nudge developed Covid Nudge, a rapid, accurate and portable test that delivers results in just over an hour. The test was developed from scratch during the pandemic.
For advice on best practice, visit the online Covid-19 Manual for Engineers.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.