(Tyler Morning Telegraph (TX) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 17--A proposed Tyler institute to study indoor air quality and develop a revolutionary filtration system to improve it in homes would bring world-renowned researchers to East Texas and lead to startup companies producing parts for a system.

Improvements born out of the proposed Texas Allergy, Indoor Environment and Energy (TxAIRE) Institute could include filtration devices and sensors used in the operation of a residential heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

The University of Texas at Tyler submitted a proposal for $4.99 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund for the institute. The ETF, a $200 million fund for 2006-2007, was made possible through House Bill 1765.

"If the funds come in, Tyler, Texas, is going to go from being essentially an unknown in indoor environmental quality to having the most technologically advanced indoor environmental quality center in the world, literally in a very short amount of time," Dr. Jeffery Shenefelt, assistant professor in the UT Tyler Mechanical Engineering Department, said. "The University of Texas at Tyler would become the pre-eminent research facility for indoor environmental quality in the United States."

According to an executive overview by David Spencer, chairman of the ETF's Technology Fund Advisory Committee, Type F funds are intended to answer the question, "What are new commercialization ideas?" Their use must lead to world-class research with commercialization by attracting research talent to Texas.

Type F funds are only available to public universities. Researchers must have a commercialization track record.

Two weeks ago the ETF Advisory Committee, which was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, recommended funding $3.75 million toward the proposed TxAIRE Institute. Over five years, the university and Trane, a business of American Standard Companies, would each contribute $2.5 million.

On Friday, the proposal was awaiting an approval decision by the governor, House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said the proposal must also pass a due diligence study by the governor's Economic Development Office after approval by the speaker and lieutenant governor.

The ETF has three broad categories. The university is proposing the TxAIRE Institute under the "Type F" fund category of "research superiority."

With the development of a practical air filtration system for homes would come startup companies and the addition of jobs to make components needed for the systems, Shenefelt said.

TxAIRE would be "set up to do applied research, and that applied research would lead to commercial products and create jobs here in Tyler, Texas, and the surrounding areas," Shenefelt said.

The proposed institute would bring in other researchers.

"We've been in contact with several major people," Shenefelt said. "One is the Technical University in Denmark. The Scandinavian countries -- Denmark, Finland, Sweden -- because of their social structure, have probably done more research on indoor environmental quality than anyone else."

Probably four to six world-renowned researchers would participate in TxAIRE if funding is approved, Shenefelt said. They could possibly be in East Texas as early as January 2007.

"Because this is tied to commercialization, it does have a rather quick timeline," he said, adding the hope is to have all of the infrastructure for the research in place by January 2008.

Companies that make heating-ventilation-air conditioning systems have products that improve indoor environmental quality, but they use cleaning data such as the amount of particles in the air. The TxAIRE proposal would also use health-value data; medical doctors would monitor people's health, Shenefelt said.

Engineers are good at determining the number of particles in the air and advising on how to remove them, he said. With TxAIRE, medical data doctors can identify things that have adverse or beneficial health effect, and industry can create products to address both of those needs.

"That's kind of the triad of TxAIRE," Shenefelt said. "It's got the engineering capabilities of The University of Texas at Tyler. There are also engineers at The University of Texas at Dallas and The University of Texas at Austin involved. It has medical researchers from the health center here in Tyler, and it has industrial collaborators who are going to work with both groups of people."

Shenefelt said TxAIRE would be a ground-breaking effort because, to his knowledge, the triad of engineering, medicine and industry has never been used to develop a product like this.

Research and study at the proposed institute could lead to a combined air-conditioning system and filtration system at a cost that would be practical for home implementation, Shenefelt said.

"The (Environmental Protection Agency) has conducted studies and determined that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air on average," he said. "Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors."

Dr. Jeffrey Levin, UTHCT director and chairman of Occupational Health Science, said building construction became tighter to make climate control more efficient following the 1970s energy crisis. As a result, air that was in a building stayed in a building.

Over the years, several things in buildings have been found to cause medical problems. They include asbestos, lead, mold, materials in buildings that generate chemicals and particulates from many sources, including copiers or candles.

"One that we don't think of very often is what is produced by humans who occupy those buildings," Dr. Levin said. "Carbon dioxide, I think, is a good example."

Dr. Levin said the study of indoor air quality and its improvement is important.

"I believe the health center, historically as a center for chest disease in the state of Texas for so many years, will be interested in participating in the health implications of the quality of the air," he said. "That is a fundamental area that we've been involved in for some time in a number of ways."

To see more of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tylerpaper.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Tyler Morning Telegraph, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: