air purification

Ventilation and air cleaning of interior spaces are promising methods for the reduction of airborne pathogen spread and may reduce the number of (airborne) infections. With this in mind, and in response to the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), in collaboration with TNO have initiated this research program focusing on ventilation (P3VENTI) as part of the larger Pandemic Preparedness Program of VWS (300 million Euros, annually).

Today an acceptable indoor air quality is mainly defined by specifying the required level of ventilation in air changes per hour or the outside air supply rate. This would be equivalent to defining the requirements for thermal comfort by specifying the level of heating or cooling in Watts. The increasing societal need for energy efficiency will often result in very tight buildings. This means that the amount of outside air supplied by infiltration is not enough to provide the required ventilation.

This paper is mainly present the filtering technology for air purification in the process of ventilation and air conditioning. By the means of reviewing the related research we have made in this area, several effective programs for PM10 filtration are introduced from the view of experimental testing and practical applications. However, the selection and screening of fiber filter material has yet to be standardized, and the development of new multi-functional and energy efficient fiber filter material is pressingly required.

A US company is using electric fields to remove airborne contaminants. Ewen Rose reports