• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.546-555
• /
• 2014

The final aim of this study is to develop a biofiltration system integrated with plant vegetation for improving indoor air quality effectively depending on indoor space and characteristics. However, to approach this final goal, several requirements such as constant pressure drops (PDs) and soil moisture contents (SMCs), which influence the capacity design for a proper ventilation rate of biofiltration system, should be satisfied. Thus, this fundamental experiment was carried out to adjust a proper wind speed and to ensure a stabilization of initial SMCs within biofilter for uniform distribution of SMCs and PDs, and for normal plant growth, especially avoiding root stress by wind. Therefore, we designed horizontal biofliter models and manufactured them, and then calculated the ventilation rate, air residence time, and air-liquid ration based on the biofilter depending on three levels of wind speed (1, 2, and $3cm{\cdot}s^{-1}$). The relative humidity (RH) and PD of the humidified air coming out through the soil within the biofilter, and SMC of the soil and plant growth parameters of lettuce and duffy fern grown within biofilter were measured depending on the three levels of wind speed. As a result of wind speed test, $3{\cdot}sec^{-1}$ was suitable to keep up a proper RH, SMC, and plant growth. Thus, the next experiment was set up to be two levels of initial SMCs (low and high initial SMC, 18.5 and 28.7%) within each biofilter operated and a non-biofiltered control (initial SMC, 29.7%) on the same wind speed ($3cm{\cdot}sec^{-1}$), and measured on the RH and PD of the air coming out through the soil within the biofilter, and SMC of the soil and plant growth parameters of Humata tyermani grown within biofilter. This result was similar to the first results on RHs, SMCs, and PDs keeping up with constant levels, and three SMCs did not show any significant difference on plant growth parameters. However, two biofiltered SMCs enhanced dry weights of the plants slightly than non-biofiltered SMC. Thus, the stability of this biofiler system keeping up major physical factors (SMC and PD) deserved to be adopted for designing an advanced integrated biofilter model in the near future.