An updated review of indoor pollutant purification by solar photocatalytic ventilation wall: Materials, modelling and performance evaluation

Abstract

Solar photocatalysis has been an efficient option to eliminate indoor volatile organic pollutants (VOCs) due to its relatively low cost. Moreover, solar ventilation wall is a common heating and ventilating technology that supplies air circulation in a room and expels polluted air under the action of wind pressure. An efficient air purification type ventilation wall that meets indoor pollutant purification, natural ventilation and thermal fully driven by the combination of solar photocatalytic purification technology and natural ventilation wall has been developed by previous research. The aim of this updated review is to explore the development of the solar photocatalytic ventilation wall (SPVW) system and critically analyze the scientific literature on photocatalysts, models, mechanism, parameter analysis and evaluation of this multifunctional system. The review also included the effects of parameters such as initial concentrations of pollutants, ultraviolet (UV) light intensity, relative humidity, channel width, channel height on the solar photocatalytic characteristics and natural ventilation performance, and a brief performance evaluation on natural ventilation, indoor heating and solar photocatalytic degradation. The governing analysis reveals that the daily stability of the SPVW system could be achieved by enhancing the activity of the photocatalyst and decreasing fluctuation of light source in the external input.