Removal Rates of Formaldehyde and NO2 by Air Cleaners

• Published in: SEIKATSU EISEI (Journal of Urban Living and Health Association) Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 65 - 72
• Main Authors: MIYAZAKI, Takeji, FUNASAKA, Kunihiro, KAWARAYA, Toshio, TSURUHO, Kenshiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Osaka Urban Living and Health Association 2000
• Subjects: air cleaner; formaldehyde; nitrogen dioxide (NO2); removal rate
• ISSN: 0582-4176; 1883-6631
• DOI: 10.11468/seikatsueisei1957.44.65

Removal rates of formaldehyde and NO2 by 13 kinds of air cleaners were derived from the decrease of formaldehyde and NO2 concentrations in a small chamber. The differences in function were large among them. Removal rates of formaldehyde for 10 kinds of filter-type air cleaners ranged from 3% to 45% on condition of “high”. Removal rate of NO2 by 6 kinds of filter-type air cleaners ranged from 1.2% to 42% on condition of “high”. Apparent removal rates of formaldehyde for same air clearmers obtained in an actual room were low in comparison with removal rates obtained in the small chamber. Latter removal rates ranged from 13% to 36%, whereas the former removal rates ranged from 1.9% to 3.9%. The differences between them were thought to result from the increase of formaldehyde generation caused by the variations of room temperature and air flow, the variation of air exchange rate and the phenomena of adsorption toward wall and floor surface and desorption from those. With regard to the effect of air cleaner in actual room, the efficiency was low as shown by the following result: formaldehyde concentration was decreased from 0.16ppm to 0.11ppm by using air clearner D.