The Current · Future Electronics

UVC- Technology that Cleans

·24 min·2 clips

Patrick Durand reveals how UVC light penetrates pathogen DNA to stop reproduction, with LEDs offering more design flexibility than lamps.

The starting problem is contamination control. The host puts UVC next to harsh chemical cleaning and asks whether solid state lighting can make disinfection more practical, cost effective, and safe. Patrick Durand answers like an engineer, not a futurist. Ultraviolet C LEDs are useful when they are aimed at a specific air, surface, or water problem. HVAC gets most of the attention. He describes room systems that pull air into ceiling equipment, expose it to UVC light, then send cleaner air back down. Airborne risk is the reason this matters. SARS-CoV-2 comes up as an airborne virus, but the bigger point is simpler: plenty of pathogens move through room air and do not just sit on surfaces. Upper-room purification needs careful aiming. The light works in the ceiling area, above occupants and away from direct exposure. Filters get pulled into the discussion too. Some purification units pair UVC LEDs with HEPA filtration, so the light treats both the moving air and the filter surface. Then come smells. Durand says UV technologies can convert VOCs, carbon based pollutants, and odors into water and CO2 at the molecular level. The same practical tone carries into cooling coils, where the musty humid HVAC smell is tied to mold and bacteria on the coils. Surface treatment still matters, but the episode keeps circling back to placement, light path, and exposure. The closing is commercial, with Future Electronics and Future Lighting Solutions presented as engineering help for people putting UVC LEDs into real designs.

As heard by us

UVC LEDs are framed as a practical design tool for cleaner air, surfaces, and water.

The segment presents UVC lighting as a practical engineering tool, with Patrick Durand, Worldwide Technical Director for Future Lighting Solutions, laying out how solid-state LEDs are being used across classroom surfaces, HVAC air, water, and air deodorization by converting VOCs…

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Why you'd press play

You need UVC with the cobwebs knocked out, not a miracle cure.

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