PuriFi, which has been focusing on providing air and surface purification systems for the HVAC industry, is preparing to open a retail store at The Promenade Scottsdale.
Founded in 2014, Ion Air International Arizona LLC doing business as PuriFi researched and tested its patented technology to reduce indoor air pollution in homes and commercial buildings for five years before going to market in 2019, said Jerry McGuire, president of PuriFi.
Tim Bender, who co-founded the company with Perry Pauley, said the technology is based on cold plasma air purification using a patented catalyst that converts ozone to oxygen, when older technologies may have produced other harmful byproducts. They worked with former aerospace engineers at Honeywell International Inc. to develop this technology.
“An airplane either flies or it doesn’t,” McGuire said. “There is no in between. That’s the perspective they brought to the development of this technology.”
The company started out by focusing on HVAC equipment distributors as well as HVAC dealers and contractors who would offer the air purification technology along with their air conditioning systems.
When those HVAC professionals would meet at PuriFi’s corporate headquarters in Scottsdale, they would comment on how the air in the building was nothing like they had ever experienced before, said Bender, who serves as CEO.
“They would look at the air quality monitor on our screen in our office — we display the same air quality index, or AQI, they can get on weather apps on phones — and see in our office it’s zero,” McGuire said. “You walk in from the outside which is 66 AQI and inside here it’s zero AQI. They want to pull that into their lives. Once they had it in their homes, they never wanted to let it go. To my knowledge, we have not had any product returns because they have all the proof in the experience.”
PuriFi’s 2,500-square-foot retail store will have the same air purification and monitors as its Scottsdale office, offering home and business owners a chance to see and experience the difference, Bender said. Plans call for moving PuriFi headquarters to that location, eventually adding another 3,000 square feet of space.
McGuire met the founders of PuriFi at an HVAC trade show event in 2017.
He was living in Louisville, Kentucky, at the time, where the humidity is high and caused his basement to have a musty smell.
“They put a sensor measuring particles per cubic centimeter — that’s how they measure clean rooms,” McGuire said. “My number was 386. Four hours later it was down to 50. It almost never eclipsed 50 again unless I burned pancakes or dinner for the kids.”
The musty smells of the basement also disappeared, he said.
“People would come to my house and walk in and sniff,” he said. “We had four kids and animals — a little farm at our house. And they would smell and say, ‘Wow, your house smells different. It smells clean. Like nothing.’ That’s what clean air smells like. It has no smell.”
Three years later, he moved to the Valley and joined PuriFi.
The technology neutralizes up to 99.99% of tested airborne viruses and bacteria.
“This technology uses the same method that nature uses to clean outdoor air,” McGuire said.
Essentially, air pollution particles are so light and small, the most dangerous particles can be suspended in an indoor environment for nearly two days.
“They never leave,” McGuire said. “If you want to change the environment, you have to change the physics of the situation. You bring in positive and negative molecules to change the size and weight of those small particles so they can actually be returned to the air filtration system.”
The process is called agglomeration, where these tiny particles are swept together and clumped up so they are heavy enough to be moved to the return air filtration system.
During the coronavirus pandemic, there were many overstated and mismanaged claims about air purification technologies being marketed worldwide to attack this novel virus, McGuire said.
“This is why transparency through proof of performance and real-world testing are so important when selecting air purification solutions,” McGuire said. “Because there is no single technology working in isolation that is 100% effective in every application 100% of the time.”
The PuriFi product costs anywhere between 90 cents and $1.50 per square foot, depending on the system selected. One unit is needed for every five tons of HVAC cooling.
For example, a 40-ton air handler in a retail store or commercial space would need eight units installed in that system.
Air quality matters, McGuire said.
Not only does pollution affect lung health, but it also can contribute to heart disease, according to studies cited and shared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Particles in the air cause atherosclerosis,” McGuire said. “You’re breathing up to 3,000 gallons of air every day. The air we breathe is potentially filled with those particles. You can eat clean, exercise regularly and breathe terrible particles and still be at risk for heart disease you have worked so hard to prevent.”
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Air purification manufacturer to open first retail store in Phoenix area – The Business Journals
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