Highlight
Student Team Studies Ozone Removal in Buildings without an Energy Penalty
Activated carbon filter research
Achievement/Results
Three environmental engineering students funded through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program in Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) have embarked on a novel study of what they refer to as “passive reactive materials” (or PRMs) to reduce human exposure to ozone without an energy penalty. First-year IGERT trainee Elliott Gall has teamed with affiliates Donna Kunkel and Clement Cros in this effort.
Approximately 50% of the US population exposure to ozone occurs inside of buildings. Furthermore, when outdoor ozone is transported into buildings it reacts to form oxidized by-products that can be irritating to the eyes and respiratory system, and in some cases even toxic, e.g., formaldehyde. As such, the IGERT student team is exploring the use of various materials that are effective at removing ozone from indoor air, thus lowering overall human exposure to ozone, while forming negligible amounts of harmful by-products.
Importantly, PRMs are designed for passive removal of ozone, i.e., no “plug in” energy use or additional energy demand associated with flows and pressure drops that are common to nearly all air purification systems. PRMs are simply mounted on the walls or other surfaces of buildings and remove ozone by natural contact with indoor air. Ozone removal is facilitated by the strategic placement of PRMs where air speeds are otherwise already high or where air has frequent contact with the surfaces, e.g., in the near vicinity of supply vents, behind computers (computer fans), on south facing walls where convective (driven by temperature) air flows are common, or on fan blades.
Address Goals
While past research has been completed on the removal of ozone to indoor materials, our studies are the first to systematically explore and document the potential for the strategic use of selective materials for lowering population exposures to ozone while reducing background levels of harmful by-products that are formed when ozone reacts with common indoor surfaces. Our IGERT students are the first researchers to calculate the extent to which this strategy can reduce ozone exposures, and also the first to explore the importance of strategic placement of PRMs in areas that are already characterized by elevated indoor air speeds. All of these findings and contributions relate to the goal of discovery. Furthermore, three IGERT graduate students and two undergraduate students whom they have mentored have engaged in learning related to laboratory and field experimental methods, engineering analysis, surface chemistry, and fluid mechanics.
