Optimal engineering of air purification systems for an IVF laboratory will minimize volatile organic compounds and airborne respirable particulates to almost undetectable levels

2011 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. S186
Author(s):  
J. Barritt ◽  
F. Arredondo ◽  
T. Anderson ◽  
J. Gutmann ◽  
L. Grunfeld
Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Fathy ◽  
Marie Le Pivert ◽  
Young Jai Kim ◽  
Mame Ousmane Ba ◽  
Mazen Erfan ◽  
...  

Air pollution is one of the major environmental issues that humanity is facing. Considering Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are among the most harmful gases that need to be detected, but also need to be eliminated using air purification technologies. In this work, we tackle both problems simultaneously by introducing an experimental setup enabling continuous measurement of the VOCs by online absorption spectroscopy using a MEMS-based Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, while those VOCs are continuously eliminated by continuous adsorption and photocatalysis, using zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO-NWs). The proposed setup enabled a preliminary study of the mechanisms involved in the purification process of acetone and toluene, taken as two different VOCs, also typical of those that can be found in tobacco smoke. Our experiments revealed very different behaviors for those two gases. An elimination ratio of 63% in 3 h was achieved for toluene, while it was only 14% for acetone under same conditions. Adsorption to the nanowires appears as the dominant mechanism for the acetone, while photocatalysis is dominant in case of the toluene.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 3185-3214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seunghyun Weon ◽  
Fei He ◽  
Wonyong Choi

Photocatalysis that utilizes semiconductor nanoparticles is one of the promising environmental technology for air purification.


An air purification system based on the use of specialized catalytic filling, designed to reduce high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds is represented. The system is a 20 or 40 foot heated sea container in which two catalytic charge units are located: one is a working and the other is a reserve. Each block contains one cleaning step with a specialized ferrous charge.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuoying Jiang ◽  
Xiong (Bill) Yu

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a known photocatalyst with a capability of decomposing organic substances. However, the photocatalysis of the pure TiO2 is not effective for the indoor environment due to a lack of the ultraviolet irradiation inside a building. Doping TiO2 with substance such as C, N, or metal can extend the threshold of the absorption spectrum to the visible spectrum region. Thus, doped-TiO2 is able to decompose volatile organic compounds (VOCs) under an indoor environment. To date, most experimental works reported on photocatalytic kinetics were conducted inside small-scale devices. The performance of air purification function under the actual indoor application scenery need to be further clarified. For this purpose, it is crucial to predict the performance of autogenous air quality improvements by visible light-driven photocatalyst for the actual applications. This work has developed a model to evaluate the performance of functional coating with photocatalyst in removing VOCs. Factors such as the effects of coating designs and indoor ambient conditions on the air purification efficiency were studied. This work demonstrates that doped-TiO2 photocatalytic coating is effective to improve the indoor air quality.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-445
Author(s):  
Alvydas Zagorskis ◽  
Rasa Vaiškūnaitė

Abstract Recent studies in the area of biological air treatment in filters have addressed fundamental key issues, such as a biofilter bed of different origin composed of natural zeolite granules, foam cubes and wood chips. When foam and zeolite are mixed with wood chips to remove volatile organic compounds from the air, not only biological but also adsorption air purification methods are accomplished. The use of complex purification technologies helps to improve the efficiency of a filter as well as the bed service life of the filter bed. Investigations revealed that microorganisms prevailing in biological purification, can also reproduce themselves in biofilter beds of inorganic and synthetic origin composed of natural zeolite and foam. By cultivating associations of spontaneous microorganisms in the filter bed the dependencies of the purification efficiency of filter on the origin, concentration and filtration time of injected pollutants were determined. The highest purification efficiency was obtained when air polluted with acetone vapour was supplied to the equipment at 0.1 m/s of superficial gas velocity. When cleaning air from volatile organic compounds (acetone, toluene and butanol), under the initial pollutant concentration of ~100 mg/m3, the filter efficiency reached 95 %.


Author(s):  
Aušra Zigmontienë ◽  
Pranas Baltrënas

Various methods for removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the air are applied in the world. Their selection is determined by the efficiency and costs of the method. Biofiltration is a new technology to control environmental pollutants helping to regulate emissions of VOC with unpleasant odours in to the air and working environment. When VOC are to be removed from large volumes of air, equipment of biological purification charged with active sludge is used. Such an equipment has a rather simple structure and efficiency of to 98–99 %. Active sludge as a biocharge has both a high concentration of microorganisms compared to stationary charges and good sorption features. Sorptive capacity changes when a load to active sludge is changed, and this has a negative impact on biochemical decomposition of organic substances and, at the same time, on purification efficiency. Calculation and evaluation of an optimal working mode of the equipment enable to avoid desorption of VOC in the system or to diminish it to a minimal value. In the biological air‐purification equipment sorption of an organic substance on the surface of active sludge is running at the initial stage. An organic substance is decomposed biologically only in the second stage, and oxygen dissolved in the system (in the charge) is used and VOC desorption from the system is blocked. One of the main parameters determining the biological air‐purification process and its intensity is change of the concentration of oxygen dissolved (CDO) in water phase and maintenance of its minimal value after termination of aeration (when the equipment is out of operation for some time). In operating equipment with a biocharge one more important problem is encountered ‐ the lifetime of the charge and its renewal in the equipment to maintain required concentration of the active sludge. The goal of the investigation is evaluation of purification efficiency of the equipment and the sorptive capacity of active sludge (depending on a load), selection of the working mode, uninterrupted biochemical decomposition of organic substances (based on the concentration of dissolved oxygen) when the charge is in its still state, and investigation of its biooxidating properties when a biofilter works with a biologically active charge and with an inactive charge having only sorptive properties.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document