An all-Italian start-up that looks at the future to offer sustainable innovation in the continuous sanitation of air and surfaces in indoor environments.
By Sara Gecchelin
In the Italian survey, Sanixair represents one of the most innovative and digitalized start-ups, specialized in the research of indoor and outdoor air quality. Established with the aim of finding a solution to the risks deriving from the exposure to chemical, physical and biologic agents in interior work environments, it has developed a 4.0 system set up on a technology that is the beating sustainable heart of its products: it is based on the PCO (Photo Catalytic Oxidation) phenomenon; its state-of-the-art modules are tailor-made, the diagnostics is fully digitized, and also the management can be controlled from remote through IoT platform.
We have asked Gabriele Valori, marketing manager of Sanixair S.r.l., to tell us the evolution and the fast success of their engineered system of photocatalysts, devised for applications in large environments, public spaces or manufacturing plants, and recently suiting also stand-alone solutions that can be used at home, in offices and smaller spaces.
How was Sanixair established and at what targets does it aim?
Sanixair was officially set up in April 2019, with, behind, about 2 years of analyses and studies about the technology of photocatalysis, phenomenon on which most of our products are based. The goals of the 4.0 sanitation system are essentially two: one of economic nature, because the implementation of some of our systems with electronics and IT (according to law directives for the development of the phase 4.0) in this stage and only for B to B customers with VAT number, provides for some economic incentives through the “Tax Credit” formula; the second is instead of strategic nature, because it allows us to meet efficaciously the requirement of a constant evolution of manufacturing processes and people’s wellbeing in work environments, too.
What different does your system offer versus mechanical and air filtering ones?
We are speaking of two completely different things. Conventional “mechanical and/or filtering systems” do not sanitize air and environment but, in the best case, they “purify” it. Through expensive filters, they retain a part of fine particles that are Trojan horses used by different species of viruses and/or bacteria, but they destroy nothing. Moreover, they intervene just on air, but not on environments’ surfaces.
Photocatalysis innovation, already developed and implemented by NASA in the Eighties, resides instead in the use made by Sanixair of this technology through the manufacturing of different systems with differentiated modalities, performances and contributions that allow designing the best solutions for each single customer at an absolutely affordable cost.
How do the mounting, testing and commissioning of modules take place?
In the broad range of Sanixair, various products live together, i.e. passive ventilation systems (for instance, the GAP system, installed by specialized staff inside the channels of the aeraulic plants of buildings’ conditioning/heating systems or of Fan Coils); Self-ventilating (for instance Air Split or Air Box, equipped with fan for the Air self-circulation) that, depending on the model, can be fixed on the wall or removable and positioned on surfaces like tables or bookcases.
The GAP system can be installed by means of a hole on the ducts derived from Air Treatment Units; in other cases, on the wall using three simple plugs.
In what applicative sectors are you more performing?
Currently, our systems are in operation in 16 applicative sectors: hotels, building offices, shopping centers, school, sports, industrial and health sectors, and many other more specific applications, such as the agri-food industry.
Some experimentations have achieved even the 99.9% decrease of polluting substances.
Are you scoring a growing demand? On what does your success depend?
In our opinion, the reasons for our ever-rising ranking on the market mainly derive from the domino effect of our single intervention, which becomes a demo for the reference sector.
What are you expecting to develop for the future?
Our future is based on the development of new products that can widen target sectors. Moreover, we aim at the transformation of some of our most significant systems, to make them increasingly smart and interconnected both on the spot and from remote and to monitor their constant efficacy.
Another development element of our activity stems from the starting up of some foreign realities (USA, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland) that will allow us to spread our systems and related services on international markets, too.
