• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.623-631
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• 2020

This study analyzes the effect of negative air ions on the concentration of airborne particulate matter and evaluates the expected purification efficiency of open spaces for particulate matter by investigating the amount of negative air ions generated by plants. This study establishes a negative air ion generation treatment environment, plant environment, and control environment to measure the purification efficiency of particulate matter under the conditions of each, analyzing the expected purification efficiency by designing a particulate matter purification model. Results show that the amount of generated negative air ion according to environment was negative air ion generation treatment environment > plant environment > control environment; this order also applies to the particulate matter purification efficiency. Moreover, it took 65 min for the negative ion generation treatment environment, 90 min for the plant environment, and 240 min for the control environment to reach the standard expected purification efficiency of particulate matter concentration of 960 mg/㎥ for PM₁₀. For PM_2.5, with the designated maximum concentration of 700 mg/㎥, it took 60 min for the negative ion generation treatment environment, 80 min for the plant environment, and more than 240 min for the control environment. Based on these results, the expected purification efficiency compared to the control environment was quadrupled in the negative ion generation treatment environment and tripled in the plant environment on average.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2005

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is recognized as a byproduct of industrialization that took place in the 20th century. The great attention to IAQ has been gained since 1980s, and led to numerous research studies that have mainly made in the developed countries. As the development of residential environment in Korea enters in the process of qualitative growth, IAQ has viewed as one of the core issues in the society, and research in relation to IAQ has been implemented until now in the fields of engineering and medical science. It is widely known that the sources and effects of indoor air pollution have been various, and IAQ research with multidisciplinary approaches is required. Nevertheless, few research embedded into a socio-behavioral approach to identifying interventive measures of residents and analyzing their choices is made. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of an interactive measure of residents in apartments that is air purification with phytoncide available in the market, and to investigate their self-reported effects of the air purifying substance on sick building syndrome symptoms. This study utilizes a field experiment design with pre-test and post-test, and the experiment is conducted in a natural field setting. A total of 87 test subjects from 32 households with already sick building syndrome are drawn via internet, and the participation is solely voluntary. The participants receive and use the air purifying substance, and are asked to use it continuously for two weeks and identify their self-reported symptoms of before- and after-use. The research findings indicate that air purification using phytoncide is effective to alleviate their symptoms in relation to sick building syndrome. Also it is noted that the participants report that the use of the air purification causes the positive impacts on their daily life. Further research is needed that compares the group with only humidifier and evaluates the mid-term and long-term use of the air purification and its effects.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.417-423
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• 2006

The purification ability of indoor plants for volatile organic compounds was investigated. Philodendron selloum and Spathiphyllum sp. were tested for removal of toluene and trichloroethylene in the artificially contaminated reactor under laboratory conditions. Each plant was placed in right side of the reactor and the TCE and toluene concentration change with time were monitored. In the reactor with Philodendron, the TCE concentrations of left and right sides were compared to examine the removal effects by plant. In the reactor with Spathiphyllum, air was circulated before sampling, and thus average removal effects by plants on target VOC were observed. Both plants showed clear effects on removal of VOCs from contaminated indoor air. The removal efficiency of Philodendron and Spathiphyllum were similar and showed 30 - 46% and 31 - 47% of purification effects, respectively. The results of this study showed that air purification using plants is an effective means of reduction on indoor VOCs concentration level and reduce related health risk though, supplementary purifying aids or proper ventilation were also suggested.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.433-438
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• 2016

The current study evaluated the air quality of the smoking booth equipped with the air purification system consisting of photocatalysts and air filters by measuring the concentrations of hazardous substances of tobacco smoke such as CO, HCHO, $CH_3CHO$, PM10 and PM2.5. To enhance the removal efficiency of hazardous substances, an infrared ray was exposed to improve the reactivity of OH radical generated from the photocatalyst toward environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) gas phase hazardous materials. It was found that the smoking booth with the air purification system improved the removal efficiency of hazardous substances containing formaldehyde by 85.2% compared to that of the smoking booth without any purification systems. In addition, the removal efficiency of the fine dust after treatment was enhanced up to 89.4%.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.167-173
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• 2018

We propose an air purification system that utilizes aerial plant parts and root zone of indoor plants where light is insufficient and air circulation is bad. In order to maximize the air purification effect of the plant, the aerial plant parts illuminates mixed light combining blue and green LED and CRI(Color Rendering Index) LEDs close to natural light, respectively. And the root zone was forcibly circulated by the fan to use the soil as a filter. The indoor air purification system combined with the light source and the fan removed most polluted air in the shortest. In the case of mixed light and CRI LEDs of indoor air purification system, fine dust decreased by 14%, 14.2%, and TVOC(Total volatile organic compounds) decreased by 7.5% and 9.4%, respectively. In the experiment in which the fan was operated for 15 minutes, the TVOC decreased to 97.8%. The photosynthesis of the plant and the use of soil as a filter were able to purify polluted air in a short time. And the fan's temporary operation gave the similar effect of continuous operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.881-889
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• 2020

The objective of this study was to quantitatively measure the changes in radon concentration due to ventilation and air purification plants in the lower and upper floors of a building. This study measured and compared radon concentration in the lower and upper floors of the building by using a radon meter when the room was closed, it was ventilated, and air purification plants were installed at a specific time. One-way ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the effect of treatment (i.e., closure, ventilation, and air purification plants) on radon concentration. The results of this study showed that ventilation and air purification plants significantly decreased radon concentration in the lower and upper floors of the building, but the effect of ventilation and that of air purification plants were not significantly different. Therefore, it will be possible to reduce radon concentration effectively when ventilation and air purification plants are used appropriately.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 1981

This paper describes emission control of hydrocarbon and carbon-monoxide due to oxidizing catalyst. The experiment was performed on a precious metal pelleted catalyst(Pt). The factors of the efficiency for purification due to oxidizing catalyst are space velocity, temperature, composition of exhaust gas and supplementary air. The experiment was carried out to control the factors of efficiency for purification. The results of experimental study show that temperature of catalytic converter, supplementary air and space velocity affected the efficiency for purification of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.509-514
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• 2016

From the point of view to prevent airborne infection-related diseases such as H1N1, SARS, and MERS, an actual application of air cleaning and purification systems including technologies like UVGI has become increasingly important. Recently, an air purification system using REME (Reflective Electro Magnetic Energy) developed in the U.S. is applied for indoor air purification and sterilization technology to counteract the outbreak of new airborne infections. In this study, an air sterilization performance experiment using REME was carried out. The results verified that air sterilization performance in the case of installing a REME system in a medical center was 31%, namely the number of floating bacteria decreased by 31% after only a five-day operation. In addition, the number of culture collections in the REME operating air conditioning systems using nonpathogenic Geobacillus stearothemophilus as a biological indicator decreased maximally to 67%. A field application of REME technology will be useful to prevent airborne infection-related diseases, especially in response to public health crises due to the advent of emerging diseases.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.197-202
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• 2007

Formaldehyde is a typical indoor air pollutant that has numerous adverse health problems in modern living conditions. Phytoremediation that use plants to remove contaminants from polluted media can be applied to improve indoor air quality. Two sets of experiments; 1) two rooms in newly built auditorium and 2) a bed room in 2-year-old apartment; were performed to investigate plant effects on indoor formaldehyde concentration. It was observed from the experiments that plant can help decontaminating formaldehyde at low concentration level (0.1 ppm) but the effects decreased considerably at hish concentration (1ppm). The purification effects of indoor plant also showed the periodic pattern due to its physiological activity. More purification was observed as increasing plant density in the bed room but the formaldehyde concentration returned the original concentration level in two days after removing plants. It was suggested from the results that air purification using plants is an effective means of reduction on indoor formaldehyde level, though, reduction of source is highly desirable when the concentration level is high. The results also suggest that introducing supplementary purifying aids and/or efficient ventilation could be considered due to periodic removal pattern of plant.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.587-591
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• 2019

Fine dust aerated in the atomsphere penetrates our lungs and blood lines through respiratory. Recent fine dust problems in Korea leads to development of various air purifiers. The researchers used this to study systems that could replace chemical filters. In order to compare the effect of the reduction of moss and conventional chemical filter(Hepa), a 1 cubic meter cube was prepared and the amount of the concentration of fine dust reduction was compared under controlled environment. Under the high concentration of fine dust, a test was done to figure out the reduction rate of the fine dust concentration by using air purification system with moss, hepa, and no filter. The air purification system(moss, hepa, and no filter) were operated 90 times in total, 30 times each. The test explains that the reduction of the fine dust amount and the rate of fine dust concentration. The results illustrate that the reduction of the amount fine dust was 138.93 after using air purification system with moss filter. In contrast, the usage of air purification system with hepa filter reduced the amount of fine dust to 76.57. And the air purification with no filter shows that the slight reduction of fine dust amount at 0.10. In the rate of fine dust concentration, moss filter was significantly higher than that of hepa, no filter (0.2379, 0.1298 and 0.0063 each). The results have confirmed that moss is effective in reducing fine dust concentration, and it is expected that with further improvement it can be used as a means to replace or supplement existing chemical filters in air purifier.