A study on feasibility of VOC sensor integration

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Island Clean Air Inc. (ICA) is a Vancouver-based company that designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of air filtration units for different industries, such as automobile paint shop, print and graphics, etc. These systems are fitted with three stage filters that are capable of removing particulate matter (PM) as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air. They are user friendly and operated at a user-defined air flow rate, and the only cost involved is operational (electric energy) and maintenance (filter replacement). According to the ICA technical team, the filters have to be replaced every 6 months when operating under average conditions such as in a workshop, or every 2-3 months for extremely polluted air. These systems use an integrated flow meter to detect when a significant amount of PM has accumulated on the filters. At that point, an indicator lights up that recommends the user to change the air filter. However, there is currently no sensor on these units that provides information on the air quality in real time for the user to observe the efficiency of the filtration system increasing the air quality over time. Such a feature could also have the user turn off the filtration system when the air is sufficiently clean in order to reduce the operational and maintenance cost, and improve efficiency and life time of the filters. Ideally, one would integrate a VOC sensing system with a filtration unit to provide immediate feedback to the user on real-time air quality. Using two such sensors, one upstream and one downstream from the filter would allow measuring whether the filter is saturated with VOCs, which could occur before accumulation of a significant amount of PM The integration of VOCs sensor to ICA's air filtration systems will give the company a significant competitive advantage over their competitors. ICA would then be the only company that can provide a real-time assessment of air cleanliness as well as their filtration efficiency, as well as a way to turn down the system in order to save energy.