Turin, December 3, 2021 – Comau has been selected to be an Activity Leader during the EIT Manufacturing Summit 2021, a hybrid event hosted by EIT Manufacturing, an Innovation Community within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), that was held from November 30th – December 2nd. With the aim of promoting the exchange of ideas for air purification in manufacturing environments, Comau’s Giovanni Di Stefano, Head of Innovation & Process Technologies shared that reducing pollution and cross-contamination is becoming an international priority, both in terms of climate changes and the evolving pathologies affecting our planet. In this role, he also represented the European project PURE – Air Purification Unit for Manufacturing Environment, on which Comau collaborates.
PURE seeks to industrialize an innovative air purification technology (APA – Air Pollution Abatement system) able to naturally attract and destroy a majority of the contaminants present in manufacturing environments. It will do so by using a patented water-based, filterless technology to improve the air quality at industrial premises. Developed as part of a collaborative project between Comau, the Italian company ISCLEANAIR, the Basque multinational Fagor Arrasate and the French research organization CEA (French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission), the purification system is composed of an Air Purifier that creates a bubble of clean, pure air and an Air Monitor that uses sensors and artificial intelligence to analyze the presence of air pollutants and contaminants. It can also understand the behavior of the air pollution abatement activities and keep a history of the dynamics and contamination events.
As a PURE project manager, Giovanni Di Stefano expects the unique air purification solution is one of the initiatives that can contribute to addressing the European Union’s health and safety objectives due to the synergy of its chemical-physical-mechanical processes that use only water. Contrary to traditional methods of trapping air contaminants, which often require expensive filters that produce plastic and carbon waste and are typically unable to remove nano-particle contaminants, APA devices use water such as rain-fall water, which is discharged in normal sewage, instead of filters. This addresses the waste-free philosophy that underscores the project. Furthermore, PURE – APA uses standard, pre- or post-processed water that is safely returned to the environment, making it ultra-sustainable. As such, PURE offers EU and international manufacturing companies a new tool to meet their sustainability goals and enhance the well-being of their workers, in addition to making an important contribution to the environment.