Work

Balancing Discrete Indoor Air Quality Metrics: A Chemical Modeling Study of the Response of Indoor Air Quality to Airborne Pathogen Control Strategies

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The impact of airborne pathogen mitigation strategies on indoor air quality (IAQ) depends on the concentration of outdoor air pollutants, the emission and generation of indoor pollutants, and baseline ventilation conditions. Typical engineering solutions to reduce airborne pathogens include enhanced ventilation, in-room filtration, and germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) radiation. Predicting the response of IAQ to these reduction strategies is challenging due to the wide variability in outdoor and indoor air pollutants and numerous configurations for engineered solutions. We use an existing, observationally constrained, open-access photochemical model to assess the response of IAQ metrics to actionable risk reduction strategies in mechanically ventilated buildings. We confirm two commonly held priors: (1) in-room filtration universally reduces PM 2.5, while enhancing ventilation rates can increase PM 2.5 depending on the quality of the HVAC intake filter and the concentration of outdoor aerosol and (2) enhanced ventilation is the only strategy that reduces the indoor concentration of CO 2 and indoor-sourced volatile organic compounds (VOC), but often at the expense of increasing O 3 and PM 2.5 . Uniquely, the model predicts the balance of O 3, and aerosol production is driven by the infiltration of outdoor air and photochemically driven indoor air chemistry, where chemical processes are less intuitive. We show that the response of commonly measured proxies for IAQ (e.g., CO 2 ) does not always coincide with an overall improvement in indoor air quality.

Source: ACS ES&T Air

DOI: 10.1021/acsestair.5c00211

Authors: Timothy Bertram, Martina N. Rogers, Subi Thakali, Kevin A. Wokosin, Jon Douglas

Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Johnson Controls (United States)

Language: English

Topic: Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure

Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,500