Strategies for reducing indoor concentrations of Nitrogen Dioxide in buildings

英国每年有4万人死于空气污染，其中23500人与二氧化氮有关，到2035年，NHS的成本估计将达到2.3亿英镑。过滤一些污染物（如微粒）已被证明是有效的，并在建筑工业中被广泛采用。然而，降低室内二氧化氮浓度的策略目前还没有得到很好的理解。现有的通风策略旨在去除室内污染物，实际上可能会导致室外NO2的渗透率更高，而传感器技术的最新发展意味着有可能实现基于NO2的通风控制。该研究旨在：-评估过滤，去除和NO2通风控制的影响-确定通风系统能耗的变化-测量进一步的污染物以检查协变量和意外后果研究的初始阶段应包括详细的文献综述，以定义主题并确定通风系统和室内空气质量知识差距的程度。目前，减少室内二氧化氮浓度的策略还没有得到很好的理解，而且由于二氧化氮水平的增加会增加或加剧呼吸问题，这是一个令人关注的领域，关系到在建筑物中生活和工作的人的健康和福祉。许多建筑物使用者对这个主题越来越感兴趣，因此建筑物管理人员和系统操作员热衷于进一步了解这一点。此外，空气污染的影响已被证明会加剧Covid-19的脆弱性和风险，因此，随着我们从封锁中恢复过来，我认为我们应该采取更多措施来减轻风险。这项研究将增加对通风系统效率的理解，并支持缓解策略。我设想总体方法在本质上是更经验性的。将对通风系统、能源消耗和室内空气质量的影响进行初步研究。对于室内空气质量，有许多不同的监测设备可用于确定污染物浓度。我建议对不同的监测器进行研究，以确定它们的适用性。廉价的选项（如alphasense）可能是测量的最佳选择，因为它们可以提供良好的空间和时间结果，但是这需要通过研究它们的精度和准确性来确定。

Of 40,000 annual UK deaths associated with air pollution, 23,500 were associated with NO2 , with costs to the NHS estimated to equal £230m by 2035 . Filtration of some pollutants (e.g. particulates) has been shown to be effective and widely adopted within the building industry. However, strategies for reducing indoor NO2 concentrations are not currently well understood. Existing ventilation strategies aimed at removing indoor pollutants may in fact lead to higher penetration rates of NO2 from outdoors, whilst recent developments in sensor technologies mean there is potential for NO2 based ventilation control.The study aims to: - Assess impact of filtration, removal and NO2 ventilation control - Identify changes to energy consumption of ventilation systems- Measure further pollutants to examine co-variates and unintended consequences Initial stages of the research should include a detailed literature review to define the subject matter and determine the extent of the gaps in knowledge on ventilation systems and indoor air quality. At present strategies for reducing indoor NO2 concentrations are not well understood, and as increased levels of NO2 can increase or exacerbate respiratory problems, this is an area of concern for health and wellbeing of people living and working in buildings. Many building occupants are becoming more interested in this topic, and therefore building managers and system operatives are keen to understand this further. In addition, the impacts of air pollution have been shown to exacerbate Covid-19 vulnerability and risk , and therefore as we move into recovery from lockdown, I think we should do more to mitigate the risk. This piece of research will add to the understanding of ventilation system efficiency and support mitigation strategies.I envisage that the overall approach is more empirical in nature. Primary research will be carried out on the impact on the ventilation system, energy consumption and on indoor air quality. For indoor air quality there are a number of different monitoring devices which could be used to determine pollutant concentrations. I propose that research is carried out into different monitors to determine their suitability. It may be that inexpensive options (such as alphasense) could be an excellent choice for measurements, as they would afford good spatial and temporal results, however this would need to be determined through research into their precision and accuracy.