German inventors behind a portable air purifier using "cold plasma" technology that promises to clear your home of pollution and bacteria are seeking funding from a campaign on Kickstarter. Their Squair device utilized cold plasma, also termed non-thermal plasma or NTP technology, which splits oxygen molecules into a positively charged particle and a negatively charged particle that can attract and attach to allergens, dust or other harmful particles to either eliminate them or alter them so they're no longer dangerous to breathe, the inventors say. There are already air cleaners on the market that produce ions with a negative charge to remove pollutants from the air, but because the Squair produced both negative and positive ions, it is twice as effective at clearing the air, they say. That allows the device to clear an interior space covering around 320 square feet, said company boss Florian Windeler. "Our goal was to get a portable device that is good enough for most bedrooms, offices, hotel rooms and of course cars," he said.

In tests, the device cleared two-thirds of the dust particles in a room when it was run for 18 hours, the company said. In addition to dust and pollution, the Squair unit can remove fungus and mold from the air, the inventors said. "NTP technology in Squair products has been proven to be extremely effective in fighting germs, viruses, bacteria, fungi and mold," they said. "Thorough testing has given us a lot of confidence that a new way to fight germs and bacteria like salmonella, SARS and bird flu is born. Even staph bacteria, regarded as the most antibiotic-resistant bacteria known, have been eliminated by NTP." The unit requires no maintenance, Windeler says, no filters to wash or clean. Early adopters can reserve a Squair for $155, although the company says the price will increase in steps during the Kickstarter campaign to around $297. The company says it hopes to raise $98,500 in the campaign by Dec. 9 and plans to start shipping Squair purifiers to customers in April 2015.

The units will ship with two power adapters that will allow it to be used either in a home or office setting or inside a car. Squair's Cold Plasma technology is also being incorporated into an experimental wearable suit than can clean the air around its wearer. Still in a prototype stage, the BB.Suit 0.2 is not likely to hit the market anytime soon, since its designers admit it would be very difficult to wash or clean. I am considering replacing my IQAir HealthPro 250 air purifier by an Electrolux EAP300. According to the marketers, the EAP300 has PlasmaWave(TM) technology that supposedly removes odours from the air by mimicking conditions occurring in the ionosphere. I suppose if it works at all, it works by breaking down large-chain odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into smaller-chain non-odorous VOCs. Can this kind of technology, if properly implemented, be an efficient way of removing odors from indoor air? Or is there any fundamental limitation such as requiring hydrogen as an input to terminate the broken bonds just like in hydrocracking, or producing so much ozone as a side effect that it would be unhealthy?

The device consumes less than 10 watts of power at the air flow level I'm planning to use it. Is there any minimum bound for power consumption by this kind of air purification technology, given the typical indoor air VOC levels? scarab air cleaner coversIf so, how large the power consumption is expected to be for efficient operation?air duct cleaning telemarketing According to the manufacturer, it produces less than 0.050 ppm of ozone. air purifiers fsa eligibleHow much ozone an efficient air purifier operating in the same way would produce, i.e. can I deduce from the low ozone production level that the device is inefficient? closed as off-topic by John Duffield, Norbert Schuch, Sebastian Riese, HDE 226868, John Rennie

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:"This question appears to be about engineering, which is the application of scientific knowledge to construct a solution to solve a specific problem. As such, it is off topic for this site, which deals with the science, whether theoretical or experimental, of how the natural world works. For more information, see this meta post." – John Duffield, Norbert Schuch, Sebastian Riese, HDE 226868, John RennieIf this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question. According to what little the specification gives away, this is a filtering system that removes particulate matter from air. VOCs do not manifest themselves as particles but rather as (molecular) vapour which cannot be filtered out with traditional filtering media, no matter how efficient otherwise they may be. Specific Molecular sieves can remove molecules but the specification does't mention them.

Going by the bar chart comparison on that page, the low ozone level is presented as a USP. Ozone is indeed not very healthy but as a strong oxidiser and used in the right conditions it can react with VOCs. Presumably this is how 'air purifying ozonators' are supposed to work. The low ozone generation of this device obviously here precludes the use of ozone as a VOC scavenger. On balance I'm very sceptical with regards to this machine's capacity to remove VOCs from any air stream but need to emphasise that only relevant empirical testing can answer that question definitively. As regards the Electrolux EAP350 and 'PlasmaWave (TM)' technology, this page states: Air Purifier Electrolux EAP300: Powerful and at the same time Silent Electrolux air purifier EAP300 features high efficiency in cleaning a good price-performance ratio. HEPA filter captures almost all types of air pollutants. This purifier is also equipped with prefilter , electrostatic main filter and charcoal filter for eliminating odors.