Assessing the performance of air cleaning devices – A full-scale test method Arash Bastani a , Chang-Seo Lee b , Fariborz Haghighat a, * , Chris Flaherty b , Ness Lakdawala b a Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8 Canada b Dectron Internationale Inc., Montreal, Quebec, H4R 1R2 Canada article info Article history: Received 16 April 2009 Received in revised form 19 May 2009 Accepted 21 May 2009 Keywords: Air cleaning devices Experimental set-up Activated carbon Ventilation Gas-phase filtration abstract Activated carbon filters have been used for purification of air and water in industrial applications. However, these technologies have not been applied to the non-industrial built environment in general and there is no standard to quantify or to classify the performance of these systems for in-duct mechanical system application. The development of a standard test procedure is a very timely effort, since it would create a benchmark for evaluating the contaminant reduction of these systems. A full-scale test facility was designed and constructed to investigate the removal effectiveness of commercial gas- phase air cleaning devices. The test rig was verified by conducting the system pre-qualification tests. These series of tests were designed to quantitatively verify the reliability of the test rig for gas filter application. These tests include air tightness, velocity uniformity, uniform dispersion of challenge contaminants, temperature and humidity control. This paper first describes the experimental set-up for testing of in-duct air cleaner systems and its verification, and then presents the experimental results of four different kinds of commercial gaseous filters. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Current research demonstrates that the operation of non- industrial buildings substantially contributes to global energy consumption, and raises many energy-related environmental issues. This information indicates the presence of opportunities and areas for improvement, and urges a broader effort to promote energy effective measures during the design and operation stage of office buildings. Ventilation systems, in the very nature of their design, are a means to bring in outdoor air and trap and dilute contaminants such as particulates, microorganisms and chemicals, and exhaust them to the outdoor. These typical contaminants have been recognized explicitly in the ASHRAE ventilation standard which requires that the ventilation rate specification be based on the contribution from occupants as well as other indoor/outdoor sources, implying that an increased ventilation rate is needed. Increased ventilation rates and outdoor air supply rates may enhance indoor air quality (IAQ); however, they can also result in a large increase of global energy consumption. Filtration and air purification can provide key strategies to improve IAQ while reducing outdoor air supply with concomitant energy savings. This methodology is categorized in the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1 [1] as an IAQ Procedure which offers the design professionals the opportunity to choose an alternative to the prescriptive method, the Ventilation Rate Procedure. Air cleaner (gas-phase filtration) is an established technology and shown to be extremely useful for such applications. This device can play a significant role in reducing building energy consumption, and removing chemical contami- nants, hence improving the well-being of occupants and building energy efficiency. Section M-1603.1.1 of the Building Official and Code Administrators [2] permits up to 85% of the air to be re- circulated when the HVAC system is equipped with air cleaners capable of effectively removing air pollutants. Nevertheless, there are no current standards to quantify or classify the performance of these air cleaning systems. Most air cleaners for gaseous contaminants act on the basis of adsorption phenomenon. For this purpose, activated carbon media are commonly used, since they have a high capacity in adsorbing gas-phase pollutants due to highly developed porous structure and huge specific surface area. The activated carbon filters are available in several forms: activated carbon retained in fibrous or foam filter media or granular activated carbon packed in various shapes for area enlargements. The performances of activated carbon filters have been investigated mostly in small-scale test systems [3–5]. There are a few field test studies and these studies mainly focus on the filtering efficiency of inorganic species such as ozone, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides [7–9]). Moreover, due to the limited control of test conditions, field testing is hard to be applied as a gas * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 514 848 2424. E-mail address: haghi@bcee.concordia.ca (F. Haghighat). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Building and Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv 0360-1323/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.05.008 Building and Environment 45 (2010) 143–149