ROCKLEDGE, Fla. (July 8, 2003) – The NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) has assisted Mainstream Engineering Corporation with a new spray that will let an ordinary home air conditioner or heating system filter function with the efficiency of an electrostatic filter.
     Electrostatic filters are considered to be more efficient than ordinary air conditioner filters and, as a result, are more expensive. When Mainstream’s PuraClean™ Filter Spray is used on an ordinary filter, the particle capture improvement ranged from 200 percent to 1200 percent depending on the particle size, results that are comparable to the performance of electrostatic filters.
     PuraClean is the first retail product from Mainstream Engineering, which was founded in 1986 as a thermal-science research and design company working on advanced air conditioning and refrigeration systems for NASA and the Department of Defense. The spray originally was developed to improve air quality in spacecraft.
     Mainstream needed the help of SATOP to find independent testing to verify PuraClean’s performance benefits for consumers. SATOP provides free engineering assistance to small businesses with technical challenges through the donations of time and expertise from 40 Space Alliance Partners.
     “We had hired independent test laboratories to perform an evaluation of the enhancements to an ordinary filter when sprayed with PuraClean,” said Dr. Robert P. Scaringe, Mainstream Engineering president. “Those tests told us that the improvements were tremendous, but what that meant in terms of specific allergens and contaminants removed, and the effect on a person’s health, was unknown.”
     SATOP assigned the PuraClean request for assistance to engineer Hubert Stewart with Lockheed Martin at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Stewart provided Scaringe with a report detailing the specific contaminates in household air that would be removed by PuraClean’s enhancement of ordinary air filters.
     “We now have additional third-party technical data to support our performance claims and a better understanding of everyday contaminates, both of which will help our marketing efforts for PuraClean,” Scaringe said. PuraClean is available in Publix and other large supermarket chains throughout the USA, and Scaringe is hoping the product will be carried nationally in super stores, hardware stores and drug stores.
     “Preparing our first consumer product for market has been made much easier with the help we have received from SATOP,” Scaringe said. “It is an excellent program that makes leading-edge NASA technology available to small businesses.”