TECHNOLOGY: A VAPOURISED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE ROBOT

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is bringing to the fore some innovative technologies that are being used to fight the virus. Here is one.

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, which runs the territory’s underground railway network, is deploying a new “vapourised hydrogen peroxide robot” to enhance disinfection of its stations and trains.

The company is also introducing a dedicated surgical face mask manufacturing facility to produce masks for staff and is testing the use of air filters made by nano-air filtration technology to further improve the air quality of stations.

A media release on the company’s website, issued on March 11, says the

VHP Robot conducts deep cleaning and decontamination in train compartments and stations, “further enhancing hygiene and health protection for passengers and staff under the current epidemic”.

It says the VHP Robot is a co-invention arising from a joint project of MTR and Avalon Biomedical (Management), a Hong Kong biotechnology company.

“By automatically spraying hydrogen peroxide solution that is atomised to a specific concentration, the VHP Robot ensures that disinfectants penetrate in the small gaps that are difficult to reach during normal cleaning work.

“In this way, it can eliminate viruses and bacteria, including staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and so on. The effectiveness of the VHP Robot has passed relevant tests and achieved the desired results.”

MTR says that when there is a need to conduct disinfection, the operator can preset the VHP Robot to operate automatically by pre-setting the floor plan of the designated area, or remotely control the robot manually with a mobile device within a distance of 20 metres.

“In general, it takes about four hours to complete the cleaning of an eight-car train in automatic mode.”

It says if there is a special situation MTR staff will deploy the VHP Robot to perform deep cleaning on top of the regular cleaning with diluted bleach water.

It plans to deploy a total of 20 VHP robots. The media release notes that the collaboration between MTR and

Avalon also includes the introduction of a dedicated surgical face mask manufacturing facility for MTR, “which can produce masks that are capable of blocking PM 2.5 particles with nanofibre technology, developed by experts [at] Hong Kong Polytechnic University”.

“The manufacturing facility has been delivered to MTR and the setting up of a clean production room is underway. Production is expected to start in the second half of this year at the earliest, and the ultimate production rate should meet the daily consumption rate of MTR staff,” the company says.

“As MTR staff will wear face mask when they carry out customer-facing duties during the current epidemic, the production can help ensure its smooth operations with stable supply of face masks,” says MTR operations director, Tony Lee.

MTR and Avalon are also testing the use of air filters made by nano-air filtration technology to further improve the air quality of stations.

MTR operates in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and the Mainland of China.