Open Access

ARTICLE

An Experimental Investigation about the Levels of PM_2.5 and Formaldehyde Pollutants inside an Office

Xiangli Wang¹, Peiyong Ni^2,*

1 School of Electrical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong, 226019, China
2 School of Mechanical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong, 226019, China

* Corresponding Author: Peiyong Ni. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: The Progress in Building Indoor Air Quality: Indoor Airflow and Pollutant Control)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2020, 16(2), 237-243. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2020.09469

Received 17 December 2019; Accepted 22 February 2020; Issue published 21 April 2020

Abstract

PM_2.5 and formaldehyde are two main indoor pollutants potentially threatening the health of human beings. In this paper, the concentrations of PM_2.5 and formaldehyde inside an office were measured under different conditions. The effects of temperature on the formaldehyde originating from the decoration materials, including flooring, gypsum powder, joint mixture and corestock, were also assessed. The results show that window ventilation can produce the same PM_2.5 purification as an air cleaner. The concentration of formaldehyde released from the decoration materials is highly correlated to the indoor temperature, but it is not significantly influenced by humidity. In particular, the percentage of formaldehyde grows approximately linearly with the increase in the heating temperature. The importance of the different sources responsible for the release of formaldehyde is as follows: joint mixture, gypsum powder, corestock and flooring. The concentration of released formaldehyde from the four decoration materials was found to vary from 0.08 ppm to 0.4 ppm when the heating temperature was increased from 16°C to 30°C.

---

Keywords

---