Pulsed Plasma Treatment for Rapid In-Between-Patient Disinfection of Non-Invasive Ventilation Systems and Personal Protection Equipment After COVID-19 Use

Current methods for disinfecting personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks and garments typically demand long turnaround times, resulting in the inability to reuse these instrumental tools during times of high stress, as can be seen in the recent COVID-19 pandemic. These disinfection cycles can last anywhere from one hour (ethylene oxide) to up to 24 hours (heat treatment). To address this high demand for a rapid PPE disinfection process that includes COVID-19 contamination, AAPlasma LLC is developing a non-equilibrium (“cold”) plasma based system that is based on previously-successful technology capable of achieving in-between-patient decontamination of PPE items to allow for rapid reuse of these invaluable tools during this and potential future pandemics. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), generated in plasma, are both effective at inactivating viruses and bacteria have demonstrated minimal to no deleterious effects on materials such as fabrics. These species can be synthesized by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma and carried via charged water droplets before uniformly coating the target object (in this case, the surface of PPE items) due to electrostatic effects. Working with the scientists and students at Drexel University, AAPlasma has already validated this technology for the disinfection of fresh fruits and vegetables (FF&V) during transportation and is rapidly preparing to translate this technology for PPE targets under the discretion of our hospital partners and introduce these plasma-based systems into existing hospital setting as soon as possible to support the admirable efforts of hospital personnel to slow this pandemic. In previous testing, this technology was validated to be effective and affordable while garnering industrial support from both the DoD and domestic companies within the US agricultural industry. While we were able to demonstrate effectiveness FF&V shelf life extension and a high reduction rate of several bacterial pathogens on FF&V targets, there is a need to test this technology on viruses similar to COVID-19 and optimize the technology towards the demands of hospital settings in order to benefit infection prevention operations and epidemiology as a commercial product; this is the focus of this Direct to Phase II SBIR project. AAPlasma plans to leverage successful results from Phase I and II to rapidly develop and deploy PPE decontamination systems for between-patient use within current hospital operations. Plasma fogging technology has several advantages over currently employed PPE decontamination systems, the greatest of which is turnaround time (20-30 minutes). Successful implementation of our technology into hospitals affected with stressed demand for clean PPE items due to the COVID-19 outbreak will be able to effectively reuse this equipment and alleviate issues due to PPE shortages.