Coronavirus: DRDO develops techniques for sanitisation of areas

Enhancing its role in India's fight against coronavirus, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed techniques for carrying out sanitisation of different areas, officials said on Friday.

Earlier, the DRDO had worked on developing safety suits, ventilators and special masks.

The Centre for Fire Explosive & Environment Safety (CFEES), Delhi has developed two configurations for sanitising equipment. These are spinoffs from technologies developed for fire suppression applications, the DRDO said in a statement.

The first one is portable backpack area sanitisation equipment and the other is trolley-mounted large area sanitisation equipment.

The portable backpack equipment is for spraying decontamination solution consisting of one per cent hypochlorite (HYPO) solution for sanitisation of suspected area, the DRDO said.

The portable system can be mounted as a backpack and can be carried by the operations personnel. This system incorporates low pressure twin fluid (air and disinfectant liquid) technology to generate very fine mist. The system is capable of disinfecting up to 300 sqm area, according to the statement.

The areas where the two systems can be used include hospital reception areas, doctors' chambers, office spaces dealing with the general public, corridors, pathways, metro and railway stations and bus stations, it added.

The trolley-mounted large area sanitisation system incorporates low pressure single fluid (disinfectant liquid) technology generating very fine mist. It is capable of disinfecting up to 3,000 sqm area, the DRDO said.

It has a tank capacity of 50 litres and has a lancing (throw) distance of 12-15 m. This is useful for disinfecting hospitals, malls, airports, metro stations, isolation areas, quarantine centres and high risk residential areas, the statement said.

These systems are being provided to the Delhi Police for immediate use. These can be made available to other agencies with the help of industry partners, it added.