Abstract
Air pollution is a complex problem involving particles, asbestos, gaseous contaminants, aldehydes and volatile organic compounds. Indoor air pollution is a very real and dangerous problem because indoor air is typically 2 to 5 times more polluted than the outdoor air (EPA publication, Indoor Air Quality, 2003). Indoor air pollutants not only cause discomfort but also can cause diseases by its accumulation, such as respiratory & heart diseases, asthma and cancer. It's estimated that 2.2 million deaths each year are due to indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution problem is more complicated on developing countries than on developed ones due to fuel combustion (such as wood, charcoal and animal dung) is burned inside homes for cooking and heating. Therefore, indoor air quality improvement is paid more and more attention to preserve human health and the environment. A major aim in the air pollution control is finding economic ways of treating gas containing low levels of pollutants.
The present study is directed to provide an economic activated carbon air purifier that can conveniently installed with small volume and has high gas contaminants removal efficiency. The air purifier made from activated carbon prepared in our laboratory at National Research Center using Ward El Nile (Water Hyacinth) as raw material through chemical activation. This aspect has two benefits: the first one is presenting a technology that aims to recycle and disposal Ward El Nile (water hyacinth) and solving the problem of this water plant. The second benefit is producing cheap and local porous structure activated carbon with high surface area (SBET, 1100 m2/g). The results showed that the total mesoporous and microporous volumes of the prepared AC were 0.230 and 0.113 cm3, respectively. The performance test of the new air purifier filter for SO2 gas removal from kitchen indoor air environment indicated that the new filter has high SO2 adsorption removal efficiency (90%).
In particular, the present filter concerns in promoting the development of an economically feasible air purifier system (hundred percent manufacturing in Egypt) capable of eliminating odors, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and other indoor air contaminants at ambient temperature with saving the energy consuming.