Extechnology has become part of the £500m city centre renaissance of Bristol by supplying its patented UV-C odour and grease control technology to Bella Italia, located at the prestigious Cabot Circus development.

An architectural masterpiece Cabot Circus was designed to raise Bristol to the UK's top ten retail developments. Developed by the Bristol Alliance this landmark project is a partnership between Land Securities and Hammerson.

Within this development is a raft of leading restaurants including the family friendly Italian restaurant Bella Italia. Here Extechnology supplied its UV-C technology to provide odour and grease control for the restaurant's kitchen extract system.

In keeping with Cabot's Circus' high standards, the landlord of the retail development imposes stringent requirements on tenants regarding restaurant odour and grease control. Cabot Circus houses numerous tenants whose air conditioning and ventilation plant is situated alongside on the building's roof. For this reason the landlord enforces strict conditions on tenants to ensure that odourous extract air is not blown across the roof and into another tenant's air intake.

As a result the nominated contractor (references available upon request) specified and installed Extechnology's patented EXE UV-C unit within the Bella Italia restaurant.

"We selected Extechnology's EXE UV-C system for Bella Italia in order to meet our brief which was to ensure that the quality of the external kitchen extract air met the landlord's stringent requirements on odour and grease control.

Another key reason for choosing the system was that it decreases the frequency of ductwork cleaning, reducing the fire risk. Insurers demand rigorous cleaning regimes to keep ductwork grease free, this can be problem for busy all-day restaurants, like Bella Italia. Extechnology's EXE unit was therefore an ideal solution since the ozone generated by the unit breaks down odour, bacteria and grease. As result the need for ductwork cleaning is significantly reduced, while the only maintenance required by this type of system is tube replacement every 8000 hours or once a year," explains the contractor (references available upon request).

Used in a variety of air cleaning applications for more than 20 years, UV-C technology works by oxidising the odour and grease particulate, permanently destroying and altering the compounds.

However, the major difference with the patented Extechnology application, compared to other traditional UV-C units on the market, is that the UV-C tubes are mounted outside the ductwork or canopy in a separate, self-contained chamber that is linked to the ductwork or canopy via two spigots.

The Extechnology EXE 12 unit is therefore easier to install and connect into the ductwork or canopy, especially when retrofitting. "The unit was easy to install since it can be simply ducted into kitchen extract systems in applications where a compact solution is required. The location of the UV-C tubes outside the ductwork makes the unit a lot simpler to fit than inline applications. The EXE 12 is also very low in maintenance, unlike inline applications which require rigorous cleaning regimes once fitted or carbon filters that need to be replaced on a monthly basis," adds the contractor.

Since the Extechnology EXE 12 unit is located outside the air flow of the extraction system it offers an energy efficient solution to odour and grease control because grease does not adhere to the tubes' surface, performance is therefore maintained and there is no air flow resistance.

"Bella Italia is proud to be part of the Cabot Circus development and therefore we are keen to keep to the high standards required by our landlord and our customers. We are very happy with the odour and grease control solution provided by Extechnology since it prevents nuisance odours and removes the inconvenience of frequent ductwork cleaning which also offers a cost saving," Bella Italia.