Novel Air Filtration Device for Building Air Handling Unit

Particulate matter (PM) is one of the major indoor air pollutants in the subway-underground stations in Korea. Various kinds of PM removal methods such as a roll-filter, auto-washable air filter, demister, and electrostatic precipitator are applied in the air handling unit (AHU) of subway station. However, those systems are faced with operation and maintenance problems since the filter-regeneration achieved by air or water jet is often malfunctioned due to the high load of particulates. The filter material also needs periodic replacement. In this study, we designed a novel particle removal system with minimized maintenance requirement compared to above mentioned filter systems. The new system named as panel-type cyclone system was suggested and the key part of the system was developed based on the axial-flow cyclone where the air flow pattern lies on the same axis with air stream through passing the AHU. The shape of axial-flow cyclone was optimized to remove 50% of 2.5 mu m-sized particulate matters with minimal pressure drop by using the tool of computational fluid dynamics. We believe that the novel axial-flow cyclone system is cost-effective and efficient way of removing particulate matters in the size range of 1-10 mu m in the AHU of subway station or buildings.