Preview: INDEX20

38 Issue 1 2020 » Nonwovens Report International

Inhale the futureEros Nani, CEO of Aeris Group, discusses the benefits of the company’s IHS induction humidification system. Jessica Owen reports

Respiration is one of the most important biological processes for life on Earth. Humans and so many other animals depend on the air for oxygen to support other chemical reactions within our bodies to survive. The air around us is therefore extremely important, and so being able to purify it and eliminate any unwanted compounds is extremely important too.

One player that has recently made an interesting development in the field of air filtration is the Aeris Group. The Italian company has created the IHS induction humidification system, which not only helps to improve air quality, but has been proven to be a more environmentally friendly piece of equipment.

“Our IHS induction humidification system, together with the filtration unit, is an integrated system awarded by the European community within the Horizon 2020 project – the European framework programme for research and innovation, launched in 2017 to support the best entrepreneurs and scientists in the market launch of their innovative ideas,” explains Nani.

“The IHS project has been evaluated by the European Commission as a proposal of high quality and innovation compared to the other technologies actually on the market.”

The humidification system concept uses special diffusers and laminar flow buttons to ensure the water is finely nebulised and captured by an enormous flow of air recalled by the inductive ducts using patented technology. Just one metre away from the pulsating diffusers, under normal conditions of departmental load, the water is completely

evaporated and absorbed by the ambient, with saturation levels that until today were ‘unthinkable and obtained’.

“For the first time, we have developed an air distribution system with a completely dry duct. The system is very efficient, especially considering that no water is wasted in the process because the water sprayed by the nozzles is adsorbed by the air,” adds Nani.

He also believes that the IHS humidification system’s cooling capacity ‘has no equal’ as it has taken four years of research and development to produce the design.

The main advantages of this system compared to others on the market include the elimination of possible proliferation of bacteria and mucilage, the elimination of possible corrosion risks of the components, the elimination of condensation, total recovery of all the endogenous heat produced in the room and total de-stratification, which is especially useful in high buildings.

As previously mentioned, this new system from Aeris has been designed with the environment in mind. Nani says: “IHS was born from the constant request for solutions granting high reliability and safety, in addition to environmental sustainability – in particular placing attention on the reduction of energy and water consumption.”

Specifically, the system can reduce energy consumption by 80%, in addition to reducing the consumption of water necessary for the process by 65%.

The IHS humidification technology is at the heart of the system, with ‘incredible performance’: a COPH (Performance Coefficient) higher that 40 and an SHE (Saturation Efficiency Rate) of 100%. Available systems on the market usually do not exceed COPH 10 and SEH 50%, meaning that if IHS requires only 1 kWh of energy consumption to humidify environments with 100% of processed water, traditional systems require

Another interesting feature of the system is the filtering unit known as VDF16

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at least 4 kWh, four times more, and double water consumption to achieve the same result.

What’s more, the Aeris Group believes that the system is also the only humidification system in the textile and nonwoven sector that follows VDI 6022 standards. This ensures the absence of pathogenic spores, granting better internal climate, optimal wellbeing and performances for the complete lifetime of the system.

Other certifications and regulations the system adheres to include the ISO 9001:2015 quality certification and the UNI EN 13779, which is a mandatory regulation that has never been taken into proper consideration in the textile and nonwoven aeraulic field, says Nani. It provides clear guidelines related to the performances requested by all the filtration systems used for cleaning air recirculation.

Additionally, “like all systems designed by Aeris Group, IHS has been realised in compliance with the guidelines of the European Directive Erp2018”, he adds.

Another interesting feature of the system is the filtering unit known as VDF16. It is modular equipment, made by a set of filtering drums with airflow from inside to outside that keeps the filtration chamber clean. The wide filtration surfaces and the efficient regeneration system allows the installation of filter media with filtration efficiency up to ISO 16890 ePM1 85% (ex F9), with total absence of maintenance up to replacement for normal wear. VDF16 can be equipped with fibre pre-separation sections or condensers for heavy particles (SAP) and is completed by a ventilating section with automatic stabilisation of the operating pressure.

The brain of IHS is the DIGITRON 2.0 Vario software – an advanced user interface with an open platform that makes the complete system ready for the fourth industrial revolution.

Besides the thermo-hygrometric control of the process and environments, the system constantly checks the correct operation of filters and motors, stabilises the pressures, verifies the correct execution of the given commands with field feedback, allowing the continuous supervision of positions, anomalies and consumption and an immediate reply, correction or adjustment of the system.

“Today,” concludes Nani, “adopting IHS as a plant solution in your company means taking great care of environmental sustainability, a unique plus that you can spend on the market, considering the growing attention to these issues in textiles and fashion.”

The Aeris Group’s brand, Alena NW by Aeris Group, which is specific to nonwovens and hygiene, will be present at INDEX20 at Booth 2510.For more information about the Aeris Group, visit http://www.aerisgroup.it/

An example of the IHS Induction Humidification System in use

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