Heaptalk, Jakarta – A student of ACS Jakarta managed to create a social project Klinair to improve awareness about the importance of indoor air quality.
During the pandemic lockdown, Ashley Halim, a grade 12 student from ACS Jakarta looked for the easiest way to reduce Covid-19 transmission. Seeking the solution, Ashley found a simple and cost-efficient air filtration technology called the Corsi-Rosenthal Box. This technology was the brain-child of Dr. Richard Corsi, Dean of Engineering of University of California at Davis and Mr. Jim Rosenthal, the CEO of Tex Air.
The ingenuity of the technology lies in its simplicity. The Corsi-Rosenthal Box consists of 4 Merv-13 Filters which are then glued together to a box fan creating a perfect seal. Air will then be sucked through by the fan, passing through the filters, effectively removing airborne particles. The filtered air is then mixed with the surrounding air and the process is repeated over and over, reducing the number of airborne particles over time.
After getting the permission from Dr. Corsi and Mr. Rosenthal, Ashley replicated the technology with locally sourced materials and tested the device by using a nebulizer as an aerosol source and a laser particle counter to count the air particles before and after using the Corsi-Rosenthal Box.
Further, the box performed admirably, matching the performance of a few commercial air purifier systems that she was able to borrow from friends and family. After comparing the results to various tests – such as a test done by scientists at 3M Corp – the cost of each Corsi-Rosenthal box is under Rp1 million, significantly lower than commercial air purifiers.
From this achievement, she, moreover, started Klinair, a social project to create awareness about the importance of indoor air quality and to donate Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to underprivileged schools. Several companies and organizations agreed to support this project, spanning Deltomed Laboratories, Pearson Education, PT. Star Cosmos Indonesia, Yayasan Kinar Pustaka, PT. Multicrane Perkasa, and Komik Kuark. “It is quite heartening to see companies and organizations who care so much about the health of our students” said Ashley.
With the funding secured, 50 units managed to be produced. The unit, later, will be donated to under-resourced schools throughout the Greater Jakarta area. To date, 35 units have been distributed and the last 10 units were delivered to SMA Trampil 2 in East Jakarta (12/13). During the visit, Ashley also held a workshop to explain the importance of indoor air quality and demonstrated how to construct the Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to grade 11 and 12 science students of SMA Trampil 2.
Ashley hopes Klinair would generate awareness of the importance of indoor air quality. She also expects to inspire other students to come up with innovative ideas to improve air quality in classrooms in the future.
