PICOFIL

[Translate to English:] Innovatives bionisches Filtersystem

Introduction: The Bionic Principles of PICOFIL

PICOFIL* is an innovative filtration principle which represents a bionic crossing of lung and intestine:

 

Derivation: alveoli in the lungs are bidirectional flow bellows pumps in a mechanical sense where particles can settle while breathing out – or not. In a more serious case, unwanted silicosis develops. If you want to bind particles in this way, it is useful to connect the alveoli in a row (like a sponge) and let them flow unidirectionally. If this sponge is surrounded by an intestine and massaged from it in a peristaltic way, a ‘pumping filter’ evolves. A stream is forced to pass pores of arbitrarily small sizes.

 

At time t0 the entrance “in” is closed. At time t1 it opens up to the maximum of t2. Then it closes via t3 to t4, which correspond to the initial position t0. During the process, the sinus hill wanders in the conveying direction and is closed on both low points due to the pressed filtration material and a filter-effective fluid. The trapped aerosol is driven by the rejuvenating cross-section, like alveoli while exhaling. All particles that do not stick have to pass the whole filter medium on their way to the exit. The exit “out” in t0 is also closed. At the time t1 it opens up to the maximum of t2, where the filtered aerosol is released. Then, the exit closes while continuing to release via t3 to t4, which is equivalent to the initial position t0.

 

Thus, also particles that

  • have a small size and are for example respirable because of the fact that hydraulic resistance is outweighing inertia and/ or
  • have no inertia towards the fluid due to their low density and can only be bound through barrier effects

can be forced to collide with the filter material or among each other.

The PICOFIL principle maximises the collision probability and has filed and published an international patent application under the number WO 2018/104398 A1.

The principle is scalable regarding

  • the construction size of the system itself and
  • the pore size (distribution) inside the filter material.

As usual in filter technologies, filters can be cascaded in series connection from ‘coarse’ to ‘medium’ to ‘fine’ and separate components can be turned off or dismantled in parallel connection due to maintenance purposes.

The binding, deactivation and/or handling of particles can happen

  • physically,
  • chemically,
  • biologically and/or
  • mechanically

by known technologies. It is also possible that some sorts of particles are bound (here black) and others can pass the PICOFIL (here green) as shown in the following animation.