| Title: | Per-Person and Whole-Building VOC Emission Factors in an Occupied School with Gas-Phase Air Cleaning |
| Author(s): | Stinson B; Laguerre A; Gall ET; |
| Address: | "Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Portland State University, 1930 Southwest 4th Avenue, Suite 400, Portland, Oregon 97201, United States" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1520-5851 (Electronic) 0013-936X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Using real-time measurements of CO(2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air handler of an occupied middle school, we quantified source strengths for 249 VOCs and apportioned the source to the building, occupants and their activities, outdoor air, or recirculation air. For VOCs quantified in this study, there is a source to the outdoors of 8.6 +/- 1.8 g/h in building exhaust air, of which 5.9 +/- 1.7 g/h can be attributed to indoor sources (the building and occupants and their activities). The corresponding whole-building area emission factor from indoor sources is 1020 +/- 300 mug/(m(2) h), including reactive VOCs like isoprene and monoterpenes (33 +/- 5.1 and 29 +/- 5.7 mug/(m(2) h), respectively). Per-person emission factors are calculated for compounds associated with occupants and their activities, e.g., monoterpenes are emitted at a rate of 280 +/- 80 mug/(person h). The air handler included carbon scrubbing, reducing supply air concentrations of 125 compounds by 38 +/- 19% (mean +/- std. dev.) with a net removal of 2.4 +/- 0.4 g/h of organic compounds from the building. This carbon scrubber reduces steady-state indoor concentrations of organics by 65 mug/m(3) and the contribution of indoor sources of VOCs to the outdoor environment by approximately 40%. These data inform the design and operation of buildings to reduce human exposure to VOCs inside buildings. These data indicate the potential for gas-phase air cleaning to improve both indoor air quality and reduce VOC emissions from buildings to the outdoor environment" |
| Keywords: | "*Air Pollutants/analysis *Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis Carbon Environmental Monitoring Humans Monoterpenes Schools *Volatile Organic Compounds Ptr-ms activated carbon indoor VOCs indoor source strength urban air quality;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineStinson, Brett Laguerre, Aurelie Gall, Elliott T eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. 2022/02/09 Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Mar 15; 56(6):3354-3364. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c06767. Epub 2022 Feb 8" |
