NSERC Engage McGill-AirPura collaborative project on sustainable indoor air purification units

在加拿大**和世界各地，空气污染是影响人类健康和导致过早死亡的主要环境因素。特别是在加拿大，室内和室外空气污染每年给我们的国民经济造成数十亿美元的损失，社会成本甚至更高。世界卫生组织（世卫组织）的国际癌症研究机构（IARC）得出结论，空气污染是导致癌症死亡的主要环境原因。空气污染对健康的不良影响可导致心血管、肺部疾病、**和癌症。**室内空气污染在加拿大是一个特别严重的问题，因为我们的气候，加拿大人花**大部分时间在室内。空气净化器是室内空气污染的主要解决方案。室外空气污染物**渗入室内，增加了家庭、办公室和其他建筑物中空气污染物的暴露，增加了**室内污染源。为了解决室内空气污染问题，我们正在与高端空气净化器的领先开发商和制造商之一，总部位于蒙特利尔的Airpura公司建立这项新颖的合作。**ENGAGE框架内的合作有两个主要目标：**1。为了解决Airpura现有空气净化技术的技术挑战，必须**改进以提高室内空气中醛和酮的捕获效率，而他们目前的**增强活性炭/KMnO4/TiO2-UV技术净化性能较低。**2。Airpura正在寻求采用可持续技术成为行业领导者，因为目前**不可回收的吸附材料是行业标准。我们将对新开发的可回收吸附剂系统进行选定的测试，以评估在减少传统的、不太环保的成分的情况下替代或添加现有**技术的潜力。

Air pollution is a major environmental factor affecting human health and causing premature deaths in Canada**and around the world. In Canada specifically, indoor and outdoor air pollution is costing our national economy**billions of dollars per year, with the social costs even higher. Air pollution is a leading environmental cause of**cancer deaths, as concluded by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health**Organization (WHO). The adverse health effects of air pollution result from cardiovascular, pulmonary disease,**and cancer.**Indoor air pollution is an especially acute problem in Canada because due to our climate, Canadians spend**most of their time indoors. Air purifiers are a major solution to indoor air pollution. Outdoor air pollutants**infiltrate indoors and increase exposure to airborne pollutants in homes, offices and other buildings, adding to**the indoor sources of pollutants. To address the problem of indoor air pollution, we are establishing this novel**collaboration with one of the leading developers and manufacturers of high-end air purifiers, the**Montreal-based company Airpura. The two main objectives of this collaboration within the framework of**ENGAGE are:**1.To address the technological challenge of Airpura's existing technologies for air purification that must be**improved to increase capture efficiency of indoor airborne aldehydes and ketones, for which their current**enhanced activated-carbon/KMnO4/TiO2-UV technology has low decontamination performance.**2.Airpura is seeking to adopt sustainable technologies to become an industry leader, as the current**non-recyclable adsorption materials are standard industry-wide. We will perform selected tests with the newly**developed recyclable adsorbent systems to evaluate the potential for replacement or addition to the existing**technology with reduction of the traditional, less environmentally-friendly components.