This review is sponsored by Molekule
The Molekule Air Mini, Molekule’s latest PECO technology air purifier, has won a 2020 Gold Edison Best New Product Award, being chosen as one of the world’s best new innovative products by 3,000 leading innovation professionals. After a distinguished voting panel conducted a meticulous Molekule review, the air purifier earned Gold in Home Solutions under the award’s Consumer Goods category. The Consumer Goods category recognizes inventive products across all retail channels that make an impact on consumer lifestyles. These products can be for indoor or outdoor home or office use.
This is the clean technology company’s second Edison win after their 2017 Silver Edison Award in Applied Technology for the Molekule Air device. The Applied Technology category awards services or products that apply scientific knowledge to practical technological advancements. The original Molekule Air was also reviewed by more than 3,000 senior executives and academics and was found to meet the award’s exacting criteria. The 2017 Edison Award recognized the Molekule Air, as an innovative new product capable of destroying VOCs, mold, and other air pollutants with its patented PECO technology. Three years on, the Edison Awards once again recognize Molekule’s groundbreaking air purifiers.
The Edison Awards Rigorous Eligibility Criteria
The Edison Award’s Molekule review found the Molekule Air Mini worthy of a Best New Product Award for 2020, but what does it take to win such a distinction?
The Edison Best New Product Awards, named after famed inventor and businessman Thomas Edison, were established in 1987 to honor the most cutting-edge new products and business leaders in product and service development, design, marketing, and innovation.
Inspired by Thomas Edison who pioneered five industries, including the electrical power system and the telephone transmitter which made him a household name and changed the world, the award is one of the most competitive and prestigious of its kind. It grants nominees and finalists recognition, visibility, and an unbiased group review by the Edison Awards Steering Committee made up of experts from around the globe in a broad range of industries.
Categories for the awards range from aerospace innovation and applied technology, to consumer goods and collective disruption, among others. Edison Award finalists are chosen by 3,000 of the world’s top academics, business executives, and innovation professionals. This award provides products and companies an unbiased 3rd party review confirming the superior quality of the innovations that advance as Finalists.
Winning an Edison Award serves as public recognition that a company’s product is not only truly innovative but also makes a significant impact on the world. Edison Award nominees are judged under the following four rigorous criteria:
Concept: This includes a review of the conception and development of the product. The innovation must address a need or solve a problem, while also creating a new market or industry.
Value: This criterion focuses on a product’s economic desirability, and how the product satisfies a market need or creates a new need in a way that is game-changing compared to other alternatives.
Delivery: How is the product’s message being communicated? How are consumers being engaged? This criterion seeks to learn more about how the innovation is being marketed and made available to consumers, and how the product’s value proposition is being fulfilled.
Impact: This criterion is all about sustainability, social responsibility, and a product’s potential. Judges evaluate a product’s impact on society and the environment, as well as how the product influences or inspires future innovations.
PECO, The Award-Winning Science Behind Molekule
The Molekule Air won an Edison Award in 2017 for its revolutionary and proprietary PECO technology. So what exactly is PECO, and how does it differ from traditional HEPA air purifying technology?
PECO, or Photo Electrochemical Oxidation, is a technology that works to break down pollutants at the molecular level. It was developed by research scientists over two decades. According to Molekule, it’s this technology that sets them apart from traditional air purifiers. While conventional air purifiers, like carbon and HEPA are tested to physically capture and collect pollutants as small as 0.3 microns, PECO filtration is designed to utilize free radicals to break air pollutants down at a molecular level. This nanotechnology allows PECO to destroy allergens 1000 times smaller than the HEPA standard tests for.
Inside a Molekule air purifier, a light shines on a filter membrane which is coated with a nanocatalyst. When illuminated, a catalytic reaction occurs on the surface of the filter. The pollutants that pass through this filter are then destroyed and converted back into everyday compounds like water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The Molekule Air comes equipped with a Pre-Filter that captures larger particles like dust, pet fur, and pollen. Meanwhile, the PECO-Filter addresses smaller molecules polluting indoor air, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). While traditional air purifiers are unable to destroy VOCs, the Molekule PECO process is designed to destroy VOCs as well as allergens such as mold spores, pollen, pet dander, dust, and bioaerosols. PECO eliminates microscopic pollutants and does so without relying on ozone.
The Edison Awards 2020 Molekule review saw the company’s newest product, the Air Mini, evaluated by industry professionals, and it proved to once again be a winning technology. This trailblazing PECO technology is found in both Molekule products: the Molekule Air and Molekule Air Mini.
More About the Molekule Air Mini and Molekule Air
The Molekule Air Mini, now a Gold Edison Award Winner, uses the same breakthrough PECO technology as the larger Molekule Air but is designed for smaller spaces of up to 250 square feet. This air purifier is ideal for use in home offices, bedrooms, or small studio apartments. The original Molekule Air is designed for larger spaces of up to 600 square feet, making it ideal for use in master bedrooms, living rooms, and family rooms. To determine which air purifier best fits your needs, choose according to room size.
Molekule offers filter refills delivered to your door when you sign up for their filter plan. Consumers may also choose to bundle both products for a whole-home solution. The sleek, compact design allows it to blend easily with a room’s decor all while the PECO-Filter breaks down viruses, allergens, VOCs, and other common indoor air pollutants.
While the original Molekule Air uses two filters, a Pre-Filter for larger allergens, and a PECO-Filter for microscopic pollutants, the new Molekule Air Mini uses only one filter, a new two-in-one solution that combines the benefits of the Pre-Filter and the PECO-Filter.
The Annual Edison Awards recognize and reward companies that develop groundbreaking new technologies aiming to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges, all while finding ways to improve consumer lives. With this year’s Edison Awards endorsement, Molekule proves to once again be a clean technology company on the leading edge of addressing the world’s indoor air pollution problem.