Healthy Buildings Ireland Ltd (HBE) is in receipt of Grant for R&D support from Invest NI for its ‘Development of EF Biocide project’.
This project which is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020 will be implemented over the next two years and aims to develop a new biocide that will be an advancement in the field of legionella control and would incorporate the following environmental and sustainable benefits;
- Reduce water usage for the process.
- Reduce chemical usage for the process.
- Reduce time and inconvenience to occupants of the buildings being disinfected.
- Enhance the occupational health and safety for the staff undertaking the work.
- Potentially allow for the reduction in hot water running temperatures and therefore saving on energy costs
Research & Development
Advancing industry knowledge and protocols in legionella control
HBE’s experience and track record in managing the environmental risk arising from legionella bacteria has led us to be recognised as a leading provider of consultancy and control services across the UK and Ireland.
Throughout HBE’s existence, we continually focus on innovation, developing new methodologies and consistently enhancing and extending our product offering.
HBE’s R&D current focus is on process innovation and optimisation to benefit our client base and advancement of the industry protocols as a whole. Enhancement of current legionella control guidelines and regulations through the integration of technological advancements has the potential to lead to greater levels of control of the bacteria and thus save more lives and protect the public from illness
Legionella Centre of Excellence
To aid us in our quest, HBE have developed a Legionella Centre of Excellence to facilitate our R&D programme.
Advancements, whilst potentially providing great benefits to peoples’ occupational health, have to be mirrored with robust research to validate and verify that the innovation is at least similar to or better than the methods laid down in the current regulations, before rolling out to help protect public health, our Legionella Centre of Excellence will allow us to undertake this work.
Current Research Projects:
Our current research projects focus on the:
- Application of technology to improve control.
- Deployment of new biocidal chemistry to improve rates of disinfection.
- Creation of processes to reduce water consumption and the impact of control programmes client buildings
Technical Bulletins:
Technical Bulletin Issue 4
In the fourth issue of our technical bulletin, we consider the use of secondary disinfection, such as copper silver ionisation and how it can control problematic water systems.
Technical Bulletin Issue 3
In this bulletin we look at the impact of the pandemic on Legionella Control with a focus on Healthcare and Education. We evaluate the variations between data recorded in 2019, 2020 and 2021, as well as examining the factors involved.
Technical Bulletin 2 – Embracing Technology for Proactive Management
RTM technology allows us to analyse live data, trend results, monitor systems 24/7, and for the first time, to generate a realtime profile of a building’s water system, which enables us to pro-actively manage compliance issues before they become a problem, rather than the reactive nature of the traditional approach.
Technical Bulletin Issue 1
Welcome to the first HBE Legionella Control Technical News Bulletin. In our everchanging world, data and information analysis has become commonplace and it is no different with HBE.