Study of effect of adsorptive building material on formaldehyde concentrations: development of measuring methods and modeling of adsorption phenomena

Abstract

Development and verification of a method to measure the decrease in indoor pollutant concentration caused by an adsorptive building material are reported. Mass transfer has a great influence on the material's performance. The equivalent ventilation rate (Q(ads)) of the adsorption performance is defined as a new index that corresponds to the mass transfer coefficient. The equivalent ventilation rate (Q(ads)) can be used directly to compare the effect of pollutant concentration decrease via adsorption with the effect of ventilation.

Physically Based Modelling of the Material and Gaseous Contaminant Interactions in Buildings: Models, Experimental Data and Future Developments

“…Most of the source and sink models were implemented based on this assumption. In the CFD approach, the room and, in some cases, the material is divided into a large number of small control volumes or elements Murakami et al, 2003;Ataka et al, 2004). Detailed information about the airflow in the bulk air phase of the room, as well as at the material surface, is obtained by solving the equations expressing the conservation of momentum and energy.…”

A study on the application of sorptive building materials to reduce the concentration and volume of contaminants inhaled by occupants in office areas

“…Particularly for offices in high-rise buildings, in which the ventilation of the occupants' space is entirely mechanical, the decline in indoor air quality in office areas affects the occupants' health and work efficiency, consequently resulting in economic loss. According to previous studies, indoor air contains several hundreds of contaminants originating from polluted outdoor air or from building materials, furniture, combustible fuel, adhesives, medicines, cosmetics, and other such common items [2,7,8]. Of these, toluene and benzene are typical volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that emit noxious odors.…”

“…SBMs can reduce energy consumption because additional operating costs are not incurred, while methods such as mechanical ventilation and bake-out consume energy to operate machines such as ventilating fans and boiler systems. Thus, studies on the performance of SBMs and the factors influencing them have been conducted through various experimental methods, particularly in 20 L smallscale test chambers [13][14][15][16]. Furthermore, ventilation efficiency indices using computational numerical analyses, including Scales for Ventilation Efficiency 1-6 (SVE 1-6), Purifying Flow Rate (PFR), and Net Escape Velocity (NEV), are used as evaluation indices for the reduction of indoor contaminant concentration [17][18][19][20].…”

Control of emission rates of chemical compounds emitted by controlling their mass transfer coefficients on the surface of the tested building material

“…Indoor convective heat transfer coefficients are generally 3$6 W m 2 /K. This value of indoor convective heat transfer coefficient is converted to a water vapor mass transfer coefficient of 9$18 m/h [3,4]. The aforementioned small chambers maintain a uniform mass transfer coefficient for water vapor diffusion on the surface of tested building materials at approximately 2-3 m/h, which is considerably below the mass transfer coefficient of 9-18 m/h recommended in the Japanese industrial standards (JIS) A 1901.…”