NOVEL AIR CLEANING SYSTEM FOR RAILROAD PASSENGER CABIN

The indoor air quality management of the railroad passenger cabin is a hot environmental issue inmany countries. Especially, particulate matters are known to be harmful for lung and bronchus, andhigh concentration of carbon dioxide may cause headache and dizziness. Therefore, new regulation tolimit the particulate matters and carbon dioxide concentrations in the railroad passenger cabin is underpreparation in Korea. In this study, a new concept of an integrated novel air cleaning system for railroadpassenger cabin was suggested. This system is composed of three innovative air cleaning equipments,a cyclone, a roll filter, and a carbon dioxide adsorber. First, a cyclone dust separator was introduced toremove the large particulate matters from the fresh air of HVAC (Heating, ventilation and airconditioning). More than 99 percent (by weight) of the particulate matters could be separated from thefresh air. Secondly, a roll filter was introduced to remove the fine particulate matters present in thepassenger cabin. The roll filter is competent for passenger cabin because it is maintenance free for atleast 6 months. Polypropylene filters with various meshes were tried to optimize the filtration efficiencyand the use duration. The roll filter could somehow lower the particulate matters levels of the passengercabin. Thirdly, a carbon dioxide adsorber was introduced to lower the carbon dioxide concentration ofthe passenger cabin. In general, the ventilation is most widely used to control the carbon dioxideconcentration of the passenger cabin. However, the ventilation is not always appropriate for the train,because the ventilation in summer or winter season requires large amount of additional cooling orheating energy. By using the carbon dioxide adsorber, the carbon dioxide levels of cabin could belowered. Alternative coolant, substituting for the conventional coolant R-22, was also sought to releasethe global warming problems by the coolant. This new air cleaning system for passenger cabin will bevery effective for the indoor air quality management of the railroad passenger cabin.