I-Corps: An Air Purification System for Reducing Indoor Volatile Organic Compounds

I-Corps：减少室内挥发性有机化合物的空气净化系统

• 批准号: 2037632
• 负责人: Kyoung-Hee Kim
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037632&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Air; Purification; System; Reducing

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is that the project can potentially reduce hospital bills on indoor air quality related illness, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the indoor work environment. People spend most of their time indoors, making it critical that we address indoor air quality. In a broader view, this air depolluting system improves the indoor environment in three aspects: reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), improving the illumination of buildings by natural light (daylighting), and lowering carbon emissions. Reducing indoor VOCs benefits occupants’ health and well-being, especially for vulnerable groups such as asthma patients. A study conducted at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory estimated that improved indoor air quality can save $6-14 billion from reduced respiratory disease, $1-4 billion from reduced allergies and asthma, $10-30 billion from reduced sick building syndrome related illness, and $20-160 billion from direct, non-health related worker performance loss. This system can also lead to noticeable productivity gains by improving daylighting quality. A study found that students under better daylighting showed improvement in test scores, for example, they were 20% faster in math and 26% faster in reading. Improving daylighting also reduces energy consumption in artificial lighting and thus lowers carbon emissions. Successful application of this system in commercial buildings is expected to contribute to national energy savings in the building sector up to $30 billion and 280 tons of carbon dioxide reduction. In short, this system is expected to improve the health of building occupants, increase productivity, and reduce carbon emissions.This I-Corps project develops a novel air depolluting system coated with a thin layer of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, one of the most effective photo-induced catalysts to remove air pollutants. The system is designed to be installed in interior spaces behind windows in contact with indoor air while receiving UV-A rays coming through windows. The efficiency of titania breaking down VOCs primarily depends on three parameters: the dose of effective UV rays, contact surface area, and airflow. The efficiency monotonically increases as any one of the three parameters increases. The primary challenge is that improving one parameter can negatively affects the other two. To maximize overall VOC reduction, a multi-objective optimization algorithm is used to balances UV ray incident angles, contact surface area, and airflow. This air depolluting system is a completely passive system which means that it does not contain any mechanical/electrical device and does not require power to operate, which lowers initial costs and minimizes maintenance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，该项目可以潜在地减少室内空气质量相关疾病的医院账单，减少碳排放，并改善室内工作环境。人们大部分时间都在室内度过，因此我们解决室内空气质量问题至关重要。从更广泛的角度来看，这种空气净化系统在三个方面改善了室内环境：减少挥发性有机化合物（VOC），改善建筑物的自然光照明（日光照明）以及降低碳排放。减少室内VOCs有利于居住者的健康和福祉，特别是对哮喘患者等弱势群体。在劳伦斯伯克利实验室进行的一项研究估计，改善室内空气质量可以从减少呼吸道疾病中节省60亿至140亿美元，从减少过敏和哮喘中节省10亿至40亿美元，从减少病态建筑综合症相关疾病中节省100亿至300亿美元，从直接的非健康相关工人绩效损失中节省200亿至1600亿美元。该系统还可以通过提高采光质量来显著提高生产力。一项研究发现，在光线较好的环境下，学生的考试成绩会有所提高，例如，他们的数学成绩提高了20%，阅读成绩提高了26%。改善采光还可以减少人工照明的能源消耗，从而降低碳排放。该系统在商业建筑中的成功应用预计将有助于国家建筑部门节省高达300亿美元的能源，并减少280吨二氧化碳。简而言之，该系统有望改善建筑物居住者的健康，提高生产率，减少碳排放。I-Corps项目开发了一种新型的空气净化系统，该系统涂有一层薄薄的二氧化钛纳米颗粒，这是去除空气污染物最有效的光诱导催化剂之一。该系统设计安装在窗户后面的室内空间，与室内空气接触，同时接收通过窗户的UV-A射线。二氧化钛分解VOCs的效率主要取决于三个参数：有效紫外线的剂量，接触表面积和气流。效率随着三个参数中的任何一个的增加而单调增加。主要的挑战是，改善一个参数可能会对其他两个参数产生负面影响。为了最大限度地降低整体VOC，使用多目标优化算法来平衡紫外线入射角、接触表面积和气流。该空气净化系统是一个完全被动的系统，这意味着它不包含任何机械/电气设备，也不需要电力即可运行，从而降低了初始成本并最大限度地减少了维护。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。