Optimizing the Design of Room Air Filters for the Removal of Submicrometer Particles

Room air filters, which usually closely resemble high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, should be designed to maximize the clean air delivery rate (CADR) rather than operate at the very high collection efficiencies and relatively high pressure drops associated with HEPA filters. That is, for fixed electrical energy consumption, filters should remove the most particles possible. This can be accomplished by designing room filters that operate at lower collection efficiencies and higher airflow rates than HEPA filters. Based on filtration theory, the CADR of a fibrous filter is maximized with respect to filter thickness and air velocity at fixed energy consumption and filtration area. For very small particles for which diffusional deposition is the predominant collection mechanism, it is shown that a filter thickness resulting in a collection efficiency of 82% is optimal. For somewhat larger particles having diameters close to the filter's most penetrating size, direct interception is included in the analysis. The importance of inertial impaction and electrostatic deposition is also considered. This article supports the belief that room air filters used for enhancing indoor air quality can be improved significantly and suggests a methodology to accomplish this improvement.     

Performance of nanofiber/microfiber hybrid air filter prepared by wet paper processing

High-performance air filters composed of a hybrid structure of nanofiber/microfiber were fabricated using wet paper processing. Two types of nanofibers (NF) with average diameters of 180 and 234?nm were mixed with a suspension of microfibers (11.5 and 11.7?µm) in various mixing fractions. Then, the suspension was filtered to fabricate hybridized fiber sheets with a known nanofiber/microfiber composition. The effects of NF diameter and mixing fraction on the performance of the hybrid filters were experimentally investigated. With increasing NF fraction, both the particle collection efficiency and the pressure drop increased. The quality factor (Q_f) was used to evaluate the performance of the prepared filters. As predicted by the single fiber filtration theory, the experimentally obtained Q_f was almost independent of the mixing fraction of the NF. The collection efficiency and pressure drop of the hybrid filters could be controlled by the NF fraction at the same Q_f. Moreover, the inhomogeneity factor of fiber packing (δ) did not significantly affect Q_f over the δ range from 3 to 23 for our filters. This implies that the lower particle capturing efficiency due to heterogeneous packing could be compensated by a decrease in the pressure drop, resulting in the same Q_f value. Therefore, Q_f for particles smaller than 100?nm, which are in the diffusion-controlled regime, can be increased by reducing the NF diameter.

Copyright © 2019 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Performance of ventilation filtration technologies on characteristic traffic related aerosol down to nanocluster size

Near traffic routes and urban areas, the outdoor air particle number concentration is typically dominated by ultrafine particles. These particles can enter into the nearby buildings affecting the human exposure on ultrafine particles indoors. In this study, we demonstrate an aerosol generation system which mimics the characteristic traffic related aerosol. The aerosol generation system was used to determine the size-resolved particle filtration efficiencies of five typical commercial filters in the particle diameter range of 1.3–240 nm. Two different HEPA filters were observed to be efficient in all particle sizes. A fibrous filter (F7) was efficient at small particle sizes representing the nucleation mode of traffic related aerosol, but its efficiency decreased down to 60% with the increasing particle size. In contrast, the filtration efficiency of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) increased as a function of the particle size, being more efficient for the soot mode of traffic related aerosol than for the nucleation mode. An electret filter with a charger was relatively efficient (filtration efficiency >85%) at all the observed particle sizes. The HEPA, F7 and electret filters were found to practically remove the particles/nanoclusters smaller than 3 nm. All in all, the filtration efficiencies were observed to be strongly dependent on the particle size and significant differences were found between different filters. Based on these results, we suggest that the particulate filter test standards should be extended to cover the ultrafine particles, which dominate the particle concentrations in outdoor air and are hazardous for public health.

Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Surface-collection efficiency of Nuclepore filters for nanoparticles

The flat surface of Nuclepore filters is suitable for observing collected particles with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). However, experimental data on surface-collection efficiency are limited because surface-collection efficiencies cannot be measured directly using aerosol measuring instruments. In this study, the surface-collection efficiencies of Nuclepore filters were determined by establishing the ratio of the number of particles deposited on the surface of the filter visually counted with an SEM to the number of inflow particles counted by a condensation particle counter, using monodispersed polystyrene latex particles (30–800 nm) and silver particles (15–30 nm). Because Nuclepore filters with smaller pore sizes would be expected to produce higher minimum surface-collection efficiency and a higher pressure-drop, 0.08 and 0.2 µm Nuclepore filters were chosen as the test filters in view of both collection efficiency and pressure drop. The results showed that the minimum surface-collection efficiencies of the 0.08 µm pores at face velocities of 1.9 and 8.4 cm·s^?1 were approximately 0.6 and 0.7, respectively, and those of the 0.2 µm pores at face velocities of 1.5 and 8.6 cm·s^?1 were approximately 0.8 and 0.6, respectively. Because the pressure drop of the 0.2 µm pore filter was lower than that of the 0.08 µm pore filter under the same flow-rate conditions, the 0.2 µm pore filter would be more suitable considering the pressure drop and collection efficiency. The obtained surface collection efficiencies were quantitatively inconsistent with theoretical surface-collection efficiencies calculated using conventional theoretical models developed to determine the collection efficiency of filters with larger pores.

© 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Clogging of fibrous filters by liquid aerosol particles: Experimental and phenomenological modelling study

Fibrous filters are the most common means used to separate liquid aerosol particles from an industrial gas stream. The pressure drop and penetration (=1-efficiency) are the most important performance criteria of the filter. In this study, experimental and modelling results describing the pressure drop and penetration evolution of a glass microfibre HEPA filter are presented. For the experimental part, the pressure drop and penetration evolutions of a HEPA filter are described as well as the influence of the filtration velocity on those evolutions. For the modelling part, the physical collection mechanisms taken into account and their mathematical expressions which are the basis of the phenomenological model are described in a first step. After that the experimental values are compared to their modelled counterparts. Different efficiency models from the literature have been tested in order to determine the one closest to the experimental values. The influence of the filtration velocity on the model is studied in the last part. The model presented here is capable of describing the pressure drop and penetration evolution of a HEPA filter over the whole filtration period.     

Effect of solid monodisperse particles on the pressure drop of fibrous filters

The increase in pressure drop across glass HEPA filters has been measured as a function of particle mass loading using polystyrene latex particles (PSL). PSL particles in several different sizes were generated as challenge aerosols. For each particle size distribution, the specific resistance (K₂) was calculated by measuring the mass of PSL particles loaded per unit area of filter and the pressure drop across the filters at a given filtration velocity. In all cases, the specific resistance of the filter cake increased as the aerodynamic mean particle diameter decreased at the same mass loading. This correlation equation was modified by using the lognormal conversion method suggested by Raabe [1971] for a polydisperse particle size distribution; then the modified equation was expressed as a function of geometric mean particle diameter and standard deviation which could be obtained by the measuring instruments (PDS 3603; TSI Inc.). The advantage of this approach over other methods is the use of a more convenient prediction of pressure drop, if we know the geometric mean particle diameter and standard deviation, which could be easily measured. The values of porosities, obtained from the pressure drop responses of loading in the filters using the Rundnick and First equation, were compared with other researches.     

Enhancing the performance of fibrous filters by means of acoustic waves

The influence of low-frequency acoustic waves on the operating time of fibrous filters was investigated experimentally. It was found that the application of acoustic waves can dramatically extend the operating time of fibrous filters. The experiments indicate that at frequencies of 50–1000 Hz and sound pressure levels of 110–130 dB the operating time of fibrous filters increases 2–10 times, as compared to filtration without acoustics. The effect is more pronounced at lower frequencies and higher sound intensities. A simple theoretical model shows that, because of secondary acoustic streaming, the aerosol particles moving toward the filter surface are deflected toward the deposited particles, resulting in increased voids and a more porous structure of the filter cake, which in turn leads to a lower pressure drop across the filter. This conjecture is supported by pictures of the filter cake surface.     

Agglomerates and granules of nanoparticles as filter media for submicron particles

An experimental study on filtration of submicron solid and liquid aerosol particles by using a filter media composed of agglomerates or granules of nanoparticles is described. Fumed silica nanoagglomerates, carbon black granules, silica shells, activated carbon granules, glass beads and nanoporous hydrophobic aerogel were among the granular filter media tested and compared to a commercially available HEPA fiber-based filter. Other than the glass beads which were used for comparison purposes, the primary particle size of the agglomerates/granules is of nanometer scale, but they agglomerate to form porous structures of about several hundreds of microns which were customized as packed (deep bed) or fluidized bed filters and challenged against submicron solid and liquid aerosols. For packed bed filters, the size of the granules has been optimized to a range of 150-500 µm with a filter thickness of about 1-3 in. and superficial gas velocities of less than 4 cm/s. Fluidized beds required granules smaller than 150 µm and the height of the bed was in the range of 15-40 cm.The customized filters and a HEPA fiber-based filter were challenged simultaneously against the same aerosol at the same superficial gas velocities. When using carbon black or aerogel granules as filter media, collection efficiencies comparable or even higher than HEPA fiber-based filters are obtained, but with the advantage of extra filtration capacity due to the deep bed configuration and the absorption of liquids into the porosity of the media. A fluidized bed filter of aerogel granules not only provides higher collection efficiency and larger capacity than a HEPA fiber-based filter when challenged against both oil mist and solid aerosols but also has an extremely low pressure drop compared to a packed bed filter and can be operated continuously with respect to removing saturated granules and adding fresh ones.     

Simulation of operational behaviour of patchily regenerated, rigid gas cleaning filter media

Particle removal from hot process gases is frequently accomplished with regenerable ceramic filters. When regenerating such media periodically, the dust cake may be detached from parts of the filter surface while other regions remain intact (‘patchy cleaning’). The filtration process depends on how these patterns of incomplete regeneration evolve over a number of cycles, how they change the build-up of the new cake, and how they affect the pressure drop. A two-dimensional quasi stationary flow model is used to predict pressure drops as a function of regeneration efficiencies and regeneration patterns, taking into account the finite thickness and flow resistance of the medium itself. The effect of non-uniform cake build-up on the pressure rise during a filter cycle is also modelled for a partially regenerated filter. The calculations prove that the pressure drop rises faster for lower regeneration efficiencies and that also cycle times become briefer with lower regeneration efficiency. It can also be shown, that the regeneration pattern only influences the pressure drop curve at the very beginning of the filtration cycle but does not influence the filtration cycle times.     

A case study of simulating submicron aerosol filtration via lightweight spun-bonded filter media

The most common method of filtration is via fibrous nonwoven media. Fibrous filters are generally characterized by their collection efficiency and pressure drop. Traditional computational studies in this area are typically based on unrealistic 2-D geometries with the fibers simply placed in a lattice (regular array) perpendicular to the flow. The traditional approaches however, do not permit studying the relation between the 3-D structure of a filter media and its performance. In this study, for the first time, a virtual 3-D web is generated based on the fiber orientation information obtained from analyzing microscopic images of lightweight spun-bonded filter media. Pressure drop and collection efficiency of our virtual filter are simulated and compared with the previous 2-D analytical and numerical models as well as experiment. Our pressure drop calculation, unlike the previous models, showed a perfect agreement with the predictions of the Davies’ empirical equation. The collection efficiencies obtained from simulating a thin spun-bonded filter media challenged with submicron particles having diameters ranging from 50 to 500 nm showed a similar trend as that of the previous 2-D models. For the solid volume fraction (SVF), filter thickness, and the fiber and particle diameters considered in this study, we found collection efficiencies higher than that of the above mentioned 2-D models with a relatively good agreement with experimental data obtained from a TSI 8130 filter tester.     

Filtration Efficiency and Pressure Drop of Miniature Diesel Particulate Filters

A method was developed to evaluate miniature diesel particulate filters (DPFs). To validate the performance of the instrumentation and test apparatus, measurements were made using silicon carbide (SiC) and cordierite miniature filters with representative microstructures. Filtration efficiency (FE), the most penetrating particle size (MPPS), and pressure drop were measured for catalyzed and uncatalyzed advanced ceramic material (ACM) acicular mullite and representative commercial filters to determine the impact of substrate morphology, the formation of a soot cake, and the presence of a catalyst coating on filtration properties. FE measurements demonstrated that filter geometry and microstructure significantly influence initial filtration performance. ACM filters had high initial FE and the MPPS near ～200 nm. Reduction of the ACM pore size in the absence of a reduction in porosity increased initial FE even more, but its influence on MPPS was not resolvable. The presence of a catalyst and washcoat on the ACM increased the pressure drop but increased initial FE and reduced MPPS to <100 nm. The addition of a washcoat allowed the rapid buildup of a soot cake, which resulted in a more rapid rate of increase in FE compared to uncatalyzed ACM. The similarity in the ACM and cordierite soot cakes after a long loading time is consistent with theory that suggests the formation of the soot cake depends primarily on the Péclet (Pe) number, which is influenced only by macroscopic filter geometry and prevailing test conditions.

Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Cake filtration of suspensions in viscoelastic fluids

The fundamental framework for cake filtration of suspensions in viscoelastic media is extended to include the effects of polymer retention, including adsorption in the filter cake, polymer retention and elongational flow in the filter medium, which also undergoes compaction, and evaluation of polymer degradation in the filter cake and medium. Experimental data obtained in constant pressure filtration of starch suspensions in dilute aqueous polyacrylamide solutions confirmed the prediction of an enhanced apparent medium resistance R_ma and a reduced cake resistance α_R. Evaluations are presented of the contributions to the pressure drop due to enhanced normal stresses in elongational flow and to polymer retention (adsorption), and of the ratio of the particle size with and without adsorbed polymer in the cake. The analysis of the data points to high levels of polymer degradation during the flow of the polymer solution through the filter cake and medium.     

Polyacrylonitrile microscaffolds assembled from mesh structures of aligned electrospun nanofibers as high-efficiency particulate air filters

Electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers of very small diameters have potential for integration into filters capable of increasing the particle filtration efficiency. To fulfill the requirements for high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters with a reasonable pressure drop, we generated aligned electrospun PAN fibers through pre-alignment at various rotation rates and subsequent solvent vapor annealing (SVA) under a loading. We evaluated the properties of microscaffold filters assembled from aligned electrospun PAN fibers in the form of linear, square, and triangular multiple meshes. The microscaffolds featuring multiple square meshes exhibited dramatically increased filtration efficiency without a significant pressure drop. A nine-layer cross-ply structure provided a filtration efficiency of 99.98% for 0.25-μm particles at a face velocity of 10 cm s^?1; its filtration quality factor was the highest among all of the tested microscaffolds. Thus, HEPA filters featuring a low packing density can be achieved using PAN fibers.

© 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Aligned carbon nanotube sheet high efficiency particulate air filters

Aerosol filters, made with conventional micro-fiber fabrics, are designed to efficiently capture small particles from the air. Filters constructed of nano-fiber fabric structures provide even greater filtration efficiency than conventional micro-fiber fabrics due to their higher surface area and smaller pore size. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are very small diameter fibers that have the potential to be integrated into filters to further increase particle capture efficiency. In this study, CNT sheets, drawn from millimeter tall CNT arrays, were integrated between traditional micro-fiber fabrics to produce aerosol filters. The filtration performance of the novel filters showed that when the number of CNTs layers increased, the filtration efficiency increased dramatically, while the pressure drop also increased. In order to meet high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter requirements with a reasonable pressure drop, CNTs were laid in a cross-plied structure within the filter. The results demonstrated that the three layer cross-ply structure provided 99.98% filtration efficiency at 0.3 μm particle size at a 10 cm/s face velocity, making it a viable method for producing low basis weight HEPA filters utilizing CNTs as the main filtration component.     

Experimental Study on the Loading Characteristics of Needlefelt Filters with Micrometer-Sized Monodisperse Aerosols

In this work, three types of needlefelt filters, made of Polyester (PE), Ryton Sulfar (RS), and Polyaramid (PA), were tested to in- vestigate the aerosol loading characteristics of fabric filters when challenged with micrometer-sized monodisperse potassium sodium tartrate (PST) particles. A fibrous filter with packing density of 9%, thickness of 0.38 mm, and fiber diameter of 5.1 θ m was included for comparison. A vibrating orifice monodisperse aerosol generator was used to produce three different sizes (5, 10, and 20 θ m) of PST particles for aerosol loading experiment. An ultrasonic atomizing nozzle and a TSI constant output nebulizer were used to generate polydisperse PST particles for the aerosol penetration test. The aerosol penetration of submicrometer-sized particles through the filters was measured by using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer. An Aerodynamic Particle Sizer was used to measure the penetration fraction of aerosol particles larger than 0.8 θ m. The pressure drop across the filter was monitored by using pressure transducers, which were calibrated against an inclined manometer. Airflows of 5, 10 , 20, and 30 cm/s were used to study the flow dependency. The aerosol penetration results showed that the particles larger than 3 θ m did not penetrate the clean fabric filters tested in the present study. The loading curves (plots of pressure drop against sampling time) displayed three regions: an initial region of fast increase, a transition region, and a final linear region after the dust formation point. After the formation point of the dust cake, both fabric and fibrous filters shared the same slope (of the loading curves). The slope of different regions of the loading curves was determined by many factors, such as size of challenge aerosol, face found to be critical to the performance of the fabric filters. In order lower porosity, which caused an extra rise in pressure drop across velocity, surface treatment, and the compressibility of the dust cake forming on the filter. The method of final surface treatment was to avoid the unnecessary rise in air resistance, the melting clumps formed during final surface treatment should be as thin and narrow as possible, just enough to support the filter bag cleaning. From the standpoint of filter quality and energy consumption, the low filtration velocity has to be adopted whenever possible, because high filtration velocity not only led to lower filter quality (in particular for submicrometer-sized particles) but also created dust cake of lower porosity, which caused an extra rise in pressure drop across thet dust cake.     

Development of a new personal air filter test system using a low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensor

Abstract

The extensive use of air filters has encouraged advances in both the fabrication and characterization of air filter technology. An affordable and accessible means of assessing the quality of air filters is greatly needed because of the high demand for these filters. We developed a personal air filter test (PAFT) system for measuring filter pressure drop, efficiency, and quality of filtration. The PAFT system utilizes a PM sensor (Sharp, GP2Y1010AU0F) to measure filtration efficiency. PM sensor performance was evaluated and optimized to guarantee its suitability for this application. The sensor performance evaluation studied the output responses to sampling flow, particle diameter, and PM sources. We also improved the sensor’s sensitivity. The experimental results show that the sensor had no significant influence on the sampling flow. The sensor output was highly dependent on the particle size and PM source, but its response curves remained linear, which was an advantage for filter efficiency measurement. We measured the efficiency of nanofiber filters of various efficiencies, comparing the results to a reference efficiency as measured by a CPC (TSI, 3772). The test resulted in a filtration coefficient (K_f), which was used to correct the PAFT efficiency measurement results. We also conducted filtration efficiency tests on commercial mask filters and the results showed good agreement to the reference, with a small average error of about 2.5%. The complete design of the PAFT and experimental methods is discussed in detail.

Copyright © 2020 American Association for Aerosol Research     

The role of P<Subscript>i</Subscript>, P<Subscript>o</Subscript>, and P<Subscript>f</Subscript> in constitutive equations and new boundary conditions in cake filtration

The constitutive equations proposed by Tiller and Shirato were analyzed and a new constitutive equation originating from the sediment thickness was proposed. A new boundary condition of the filter cake based on the solid compressive pressure of the first solid layer,p _f , was also proposed. Accurate average specific cake resistances at various pressures and the thickness of cake were calculated with the new constitutive equation and boundary conditions. The influence ofp _f on the cake thickness and average porosity was studied theoretically. Using three constitutive equations, it was proved that the compressibility n obtained from filtration results instead of CPC (compression-permeability cell) of very compressible cake could not have an exact value.     

Filtration and loading characteristics of granular bed filters

The purpose of this study was to investigate the filtration and loading characteristics of granular bed filters. Stainless steel holders (diameter 71.6 mm, height 70 mm) were fabricated to accommodate 500 g of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) beads, as the packed media of granular bed. Monodisperse ZrO₂ granules (0.3, 0.8, 2 and 4 mm in diameter) were used to demonstrate the effect of the granule size and packing geometry on both pressure drop and aerosol penetration. From the filter quality perspective, the selection of the ‘best” filter is complicated. Assuming a low face velocity (e.g., 0.58 cm/s), large granule size is more cost-effective because of the higher filter quality factor. The phenomenon implies that the gain in filtration efficiency due to larger surface area (of small granules in the filter) did not compensate for the increase in air resistance. After the cake formation point, the dust cake on glass fiber filter became compressed. This dust cake compaction caused the pressure to drop precipitously and intermittently. In contrast, the rate of increase in pressure drop of the dust cake formed on the granular bed filters decreased with time probably due to the pinhole channels in the increasing mass load. The size and density of the pinholes are determined by the granule size, the face velocity and the size of the challenge aerosols.     

The influence of pleat geometry on the pressure drop in deep-pleated cassette filters

In air filtering applications, a filter's pressure drop at a defined collection efficiency constitutes an important parameter. This paper discusses the variables influencing the pressure drop in air filters featuring deep-pleated filter media. For cassette-type fine filters in accordance with EN 779 or for HEPA/ULPA filters in accordance with EN 1822, the most commonly used media are paper-like materials with a thickness of less than 1 mm, which offer a relatively high resistance to the air flowing through them. Manufacturers accordingly endeavour to accommodate a maximum of filter medium area in a small space. To enable the pressure drops customary in intake, exhaust and re-circulated air filtration to be assured, the filter medium is therefore arranged in narrow, deep pleats. Particularly when large quantities of air are being handled per filter element, it is advantageous to pleat the filter medium in depths of 150 mm to 280 mm. The conversion technique and the resultant pleat geometry exert a crucial influence on the pressure drop concerned.     

Air flows and pressure drop modelling for different pleated industrial filters

A dimensionless model was developed to determine the pressure drop across clean pleated filters, according to filter medium type, geometric characteristics of the pleating (distance between two pleats, pleat height, etc) and air flow parameters (filtration velocity, air density, etc). The model was derived from both experimental and numerical results obtained from nuclear and automotive filters — high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) and low efficiency particulate (LE), respectively. The major findings were that a more homogeneous air flow distribution occured over the surface of the pleated HEPA filter, while geometric characteristics had a greater influence on the initial pressure drop across the LE filter. The numerical model highlighted the fundamental importance of the filter medium's air flow resistance on air flow distribution.