Biofiltration of airborne VOCs with green wall systems-Microbial and chemical dynamics

Mikkonen, Anu; Li, Tao; Vesala, Mari; Saarenheimo, Jatta; Ahonen, Viivi; Kärenlampi, Sirpa; Blande, James D.; Tiirola, Marja; Tervahauta, Arja

doi:10.1111/ina.12473

Cited by 37 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Microbial biofilms treat building waste water and even provide non-potable water for reuse within building systems [131]. Similarly, active "green walls" have been used to improve air quality (measured via clean air delivery rate), by utilizing a combination of plant and plant-or soil-associated microorganisms to degrade particulates in conjunction with active airflow [132][133][134]. However, green walls do have the potential to increase humidity indoors, and poor infrastructure in installations can result in moisture-related structural damage, potentially providing adequate microbial growth conditions.…”

Section: Moisture and Relative Humiditymentioning

confidence: 99%

Building upon current knowledge and techniques of indoor microbiology to construct the next era of theory into microorganisms, health, and the built environment

Horve

Lloyd

Mhuireach

et al. 2019

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

109

103

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In the constructed habitat in which we spend up to 90% of our time, architectural design influences occupants' behavioral patterns, interactions with objects, surfaces, rituals, the outside environment, and each other. Within this built environment, human behavior and building design contribute to the accrual and dispersal of microorganisms; it is a collection of fomites that transfer microorganisms; reservoirs that collect biomass; structures that induce human or air movement patterns; and space types that encourage proximity or isolation between humans whose personal microbial clouds disperse cells into buildings. There have been recent calls to incorporate building microbiology into occupant health and exposure research and standards, yet the built environment is largely viewed as a repository for microorganisms which are to be eliminated, instead of a habitat which is inexorably linked to the microbial influences of building inhabitants. Health sectors have re-evaluated the role of microorganisms in health, incorporating microorganisms into prevention and treatment protocols, yet no paradigm shift has occurred with respect to microbiology of the built environment, despite calls to do so. Technological and logistical constraints often preclude our ability to link health outcomes to indoor microbiology, yet sufficient study exists to inform the theory and implementation of the next era of research and intervention in the built environment. This review presents built environment characteristics in relation to human health and disease, explores some of the current experimental strategies and interventions which explore health in the built environment, and discusses an emerging model for fostering indoor microbiology rather than fearing it.

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Section: Moisture and Relative Humiditymentioning

confidence: 99%

Building upon current knowledge and techniques of indoor microbiology to construct the next era of theory into microorganisms, health, and the built environment

Horve

Lloyd

Mhuireach

et al. 2019

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

109

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A standardized metric to be used in mass balance calculations, such as the CADR, should also be a critical aspect of future experimental reporting. Research also suggests that the plant itself is less crucial to VOC removal than the microbial community which resides within the rhizosphere/soil system of the plant [73,74].…”

Section: Other Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…So even if a potted plant works to slightly reduce, for instance, the persistence of formaldehyde indoors, its net impact on total VOC concentrations and overall indoor air quality is less clear. Spores and other bioparticle emissions may also be produced by plants, which have been observed from biowall systems [65,74,75]. Continued rigorous laboratory and field studies are required to develop a more complete and nuanced understanding of the interplay between plants and indoor environmental outcomes.…”

Section: Other Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potted plants do not improve indoor air quality: a review and analysis of reported VOC removal efficiencies

Cummings

Waring

2019

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Potted plants have demonstrated abilities to remove airborne volatile organic compounds (VOC) in small, sealed chambers over timescales of many hours or days. Claims have subsequently been made suggesting that potted plants may reduce indoor VOC concentrations. These potted plant chamber studies reported outcomes using various metrics, often not directly applicable to contextualizing plants' impacts on indoor VOC loads. To assess potential impacts, 12 published studies of chamber experiments were reviewed, and 196 experimental results were translated into clean air delivery rates (CADR, m 3 /h), which is an air cleaner metric that can be normalized by volume to parameterize first-order loss indoors. The distribution of single-plant CADR spanned orders of magnitude, with a median of 0.023 m 3 /h, necessitating the placement of 10-1000 plants/m 2 of a building's floor space for the combined VOC-removing ability by potted plants to achieve the same removal rate that outdoor-to-indoor air exchange already provides in typical buildings (~1 h −1). Future experiments should shift the focus from potted plants' (in)abilities to passively clean indoor air, and instead investigate VOC uptake mechanisms, alternative biofiltration technologies, biophilic productivity and well-being benefits, or negative impacts of other plant-sourced emissions, which must be assessed by rigorous field work accounting for important indoor processes.

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“…The green wall (GW) systems with active air circulation, higher plants and optimized growth media combine a green interior, biofiltering, and automatic irrigation to purify indoor air from pollutants [1], [2]. However, these systems need further development to become competitive with standard indoor air filters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance and Enzyme Activity of Airborne Microorganisms in the Experimental Green Wall System

Kalniņš¹,

Žorža²,

Sieriņa³

et al. 2020

World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering

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Recently the modern green wall (GW) systems with active air circulation, higher plants and optimized growth media are becoming increasingly more efficient for indoor air biofiltration. However, the functioning mechanisms of these complex systems are still poorly investigated. This study was focused on the activity of biofilm on the ceramic granules, which has been developed in the experimental GW within four months under realistic office conditions. Microbial abundance on the surface of ceramic granules has been evaluated by the number of culturable heterotrophic bacteria, as well as enzyme activity, i.e., fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis and potential ammonium oxidation (PAO). Different pre-treatment types of granules, i.e., grinding and sonication, showed significant (p<0.05) differences in FDA and PAO activities. The microbial activity of biofilm derived from the surface of ceramic granules in pots with Epipremnum aureum placed on the 1 st , 3 rd , 5 th , 7 th and 9 th height levels, did not exhibit a linear dependence on the height. Particularly, the FDA hydrolysis on the granule surface varied in the range from 167.4 µg/g on the 3 rd level up to 463.9 µg/g on the 1 st level. Contribution of the GW to the concentration of airborne microorganisms in the air was found to be negligible. Further experiments will be focused on the GW performance in terms of biodegradation of volatile organic compounds.

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Biofiltration of airborne VOCs with green wall systems-Microbial and chemical dynamics

Cited by 37 publications

References 37 publications

Building upon current knowledge and techniques of indoor microbiology to construct the next era of theory into microorganisms, health, and the built environment

Building upon current knowledge and techniques of indoor microbiology to construct the next era of theory into microorganisms, health, and the built environment

Potted plants do not improve indoor air quality: a review and analysis of reported VOC removal efficiencies

Abundance and Enzyme Activity of Airborne Microorganisms in the Experimental Green Wall System

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