UV disinfection equipment uses short-wavelength UV-C light to inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA. UV-C is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air, and water purification. The global UV disinfection equipment market was valued at $1.3 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $5.7 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 17.1% from 2020 to 2027. Traditionally, the industry has used ordinary UV-C tubes or UV-C bulbs, not UV-C LED who is now rapidly developing into a mainstream solution.

The reason is that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a fast technology development for the UV-C LED industry. UV LEDs do not contain toxic mercury and are often found in the older technology. UV-C LED are much smaller and more durable than the UV-C tubes and are more resistant to vibration and impact. This result in less product breakage and reduced waste and maintenance.

According to Optics & Photonics News (OPN) who is The Optical Society’s news magazine providing in-depth coverage of recent developments in the field of optics, the global market for UV-C light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could balloon from US$144 million in 2019 and US$308 million in 2020 to US$2.5 billion in 2025—a five-year compound annual growth rate of 52.0%. This statement is grounded in market research about UV-C LED.

The market-research firm Yole Développement who has done a comprehensive analysis of the numbers and its implications considers an explosion of air solutions in offices, as well as low-cost systems designed to sterilize reusable personal protective equipment. What adds to the growth is also rapidly decreasing costs of UV-C LED. UV-C LED increasingly dropping in cost. UV-C LED costs has dropped to almost 1/100 in a five-year period.

The analysis of the sector envisions the market for UV-C LEDs for surface disinfection to grow from a projected US$148 million in 2020 to US$931 million in 2025. UV-C LEDs for water disinfection could also expand rapidly over the same period, going from US$109 million in 2020 to US$1.4 billion in 2025.