Duke Energy Purchases Sanidyne® UV-C Sanitizer to Combat Mold

What we had at Duke Energy was an outbreak of a fungus (Aspergillus) in a hydroelectric unit in a 4-unit hydroelectric station during an ongoing equipment replacement outage. The spores of the fungus can cause lung disease. A year ago, we had a similar outbreak in this unit and the resulting spore bloom and exploding spore count forced us to shut down work for a week, restrict general station access, and bring in air scrubbers and other methods of air cleaning—so it was very costly.

When I was advised that we were again seeing the same fungus in this unit (it manifests as a black mold initially) and as I was aware of wet conditions likely to make the environment hospitable to the growth and a potential large-scale bloom, I looked for a non-biocide-based method of control. I was aware that UV had sanitizing capabilities so that is what I searched on, and I found your product. The electrical requirement being a normal voltage was very helpful for quick deployment.

We bought the product, had it express delivered, then set it up with appropriate curtains and restricted access to the unit and ran it for a couple of weeks. In the end, we did not have an outbreak. I think that it likely was a major contributor to controlling a nuisance issue at the Duke Energy station and keeping us from risking some significant lost time during an ongoing major outage.