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

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，该项目可能会减少与疾病相关的室内空气质量的医院账单，减少碳排放，并改善室内工作环境。人们的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，这种空气净化系统从三个方面改善了室内环境：减少挥发性有机化合物(VOCs)，改善建筑物的自然光照明(采光)，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来说。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减少呼吸道疾病，减少过敏和哮喘，节省60-140亿美元，减少与病态建筑综合症相关的疾病，减少与健康无关的直接工作表现损失，节省100-300亿美元。该系统还可以通过改善采光质量来显著提高生产率。一项研究发现，在更好的日光下，学生的考试成绩有所提高，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为国家在建筑部门节省高达300亿美元的能源和减少280吨二氧化碳做出贡献。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，并减少碳排放。这个i-Corps项目开发了一种新型的空气净化系统，上面覆盖了一层薄薄的二氧化钛纳米颗粒，这是去除空气污染物的最有效的光诱导催化剂之一。该系统被设计成安装在窗户后面的室内空间，与室内空气接触，同时接收从窗户进入的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、接触表面积和空气流量。效率随着三个参数中的任何一个增加而单调增加。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总体VOC，采用了一种多目标优化算法来平衡紫外线入射角度、接触面面积和气流。这个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，也不需要电力来操作，这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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.