Can commonly-used fan-driven air cleaning technologies improve indoor air quality? A literature review

Abstract

a b s t r a c tAir cleaning techniques have been applied worldwide with the goal of improving indoor air quality. The effectiveness of applying these techniques varies widely, and pollutant removal efficiency is usually determined in controlled laboratory environments which may not be realized in practice. Some air cleaners are largely ineffective, and some produce harmful by-products. To summarize what is known regarding the effectiveness of fan-driven air cleaning technologies, a state-of-the-art review of the scientific literature was undertaken by a multidisciplinary panel of experts from Europe, North America, and Asia with expertise in air cleaning, aerosol science, medicine, chemistry and ventilation. The effects on health were not examined. Over 26,000 articles were identified in major literature databases; 400 were selected as being relevant based on their titles and abstracts by the first two authors, who further reduced the number of articles to 160 based on the full texts. These articles were reviewed by the panel using predefined inclusion criteria during their first meeting. Additions were also made by the panel. Of these, 133 articles were finally selected for detailed review. Each article was assessed independently by two members of the panel and then judged by the entire panel during a consensus meeting. During this process 59 articles were deemed conclusive and their results were used for final reporting at their second meeting. The conclusions are that: (1) None of the reviewed technologies was able to effectively remove all indoor pollutants and many were found to generate undesirable by-products during operation. (2) Particle filtration and sorption of gaseous pollutants were among the most effective air cleaning technologies, but there is insufficient information regarding long-term performance and proper maintenance. (3) The existing data make it difficult to extract information such as Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), which represents a common benchmark for comparing the performance of different air cleaning technologies. (4) To compare and select suitable indoor air cleaning devices, a labeling system accounting for characteristics such as CADR, energy consumption, volume, harmful by-products, and life span is Atmospheric Environment 45 (2011) 4329e4343 necessary. For that purpose, a standard test room and condition should be built and studied. (5) Although there is evidence that some air cleaning technologies improve indoor air quality, further research is needed before any of them can be confidently recommended for use in indoor environments.

A New Clean Air Delivery Rate Test Applied to Five Portable Indoor Air Cleaners

“…The pollutant removal ability of the air cleaners should preferably be quantified in terms of the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) for easy comparison (Shaughnessy and Sextro 2006;Zhang et al 2011). For the removal of particles, which is the focus of this study, CADR has been reported by some studies (Offermann et al 1985;Batterman et al 2005;Waring et al 2008;Mang et al 2009;Agrawal et al 2010;Sultan et al 2011;Zuraimi et al 2011;Kim et al 2013).…”

“…Another way of removing pollutants is indoor air cleaning. Portable air cleaners for home and office usage utilize various techniques depending on which pollutants they target (Zhang et al 2011). No air cleaner removes all pollutants, and some even produce harmful by-products, such as ozone (Niu et al 2001;Britigan et al 2006;Waring et al 2008).…”

Tekstil Malzemeleri ile Kapalı Alan Hava Kalitesinin İyileştirilmesi

“…İç hava kalitesi, hasta bina sendromuna etki eden en önemli faktörlerdendir. Hava temizleme amacına yönelik olarak beş temel sistemin kullanıldığı görülmektedir [10].…”

“…Her kirletici tipinin kendine özgü yapısından kaynaklanan farklı zararları olmakla birlikte en yaygın görülen sağlık etkileri; konjuktival tahriş, burun ve boğazda tahriş; baş ağrısı, deride alerjik reaksiyonlar, nefes darlığı, koordinasyon kaybı, bulantı; burun kanaması, yorgunluk, halsizlik, akciğer, böbrek ve merkezi sinir sisteminde hasardır. Bazı organik maddeler hayvanlarda, bazı maddeler de insanlarda kansere neden olabilmektedir [8,9,10].…”

Cost-effectiveness analysis to assess commercial TiO2 photocatalysts for acetaldehyde degradation in air

“…Current advances in building management significantly impede IAQ improvement by the first two methods (Bennett, 2009), hence the option of pollution abatement is receiving more attention. Several technologies are available and already operational to this end, such as filter systems (Batterman et al, 2005;Bekö et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2011), ozone generators (Kwong et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2011) and plasma catalytic systems (Van Durme et al, 2007;Van Wesenbeeck et al, 2013).…”