Formaldehyde emission behavior of building materials: On-site measurements and modeling approach to predict indoor air pollution

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 280; pp. 164 - 173
• Main Authors: Bourdin, Delphine, Mocho, Pierre, Desauziers, Valérie, Plaisance, Hervé
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15.09.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air Pollutants; Air Pollution, Indoor; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Box model; Building material; CFD modeling; Chemical and Process Engineering; Chemical engineering; Engineering Sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Formaldehyde; Heat and mass transfer. Packings, plates; Hydrodynamics; Indoor air quality; Indoor pollution and occupational exposure; Models, Theoretical; On-site emission cell; Pollution; SPME; Ci; H; hij; Aj; L; Formaldehyde; Csij; SPME; U; V; Lc; Indoor air quality; λC; Ciout; i; CFD modeling; Diair; j; Ci0; τij; On-site emission cell; m; VC; Building material; tspme; Qij; t; Box model; Um; λ; ν; Computational fluid dynamics; Construction materials; Air quality; Pollutant emission; Modeling; Mass transfer; Solid phase microextraction; Mass transfer coefficient; Sampler; Indoor pollution; Air pollution; Boundary layer
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.07.065

•New method to measure gas phase concentration of formaldehyde at material surface.•New method to quantify the mass transfer of formaldehyde at material surface.•Assessment of a mass balance model to predict indoor air quality.•On-site measurements were required to predict their real impact on indoor pollution. The purpose of this paper was to investigate formaldehyde emission behavior of building materials from on-site measurements of air phase concentration at material surface used as input data of a box model to estimate the indoor air pollution of a newly built classroom. The relevance of this approach was explored using CFD modeling. In this box model, the contribution of building materials to indoor air pollution was estimated with two parameters: the convective mass transfer coefficient in the material/air boundary layer and the on-site measurements of gas phase concentration at material surfaces. An experimental method based on an emission test chamber was developed to quantify this convective mass transfer coefficient. The on-site measurement of gas phase concentration at material surface was measured by coupling a home-made sampler to SPME. First results had shown an accurate estimation of indoor formaldehyde concentration in this classroom by using a simple box model.