抄録
Recent concerns about environmental protection encourage the use of compact indoor air cleaners, therefore, various types of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been developed. Although a wide range of airborne particles such as dust can be collected effectively with an ordinary ESP using a positive DC corona, it is difficult to remove gaseous compounds such as tobacco smoke which consists of submicron particles and gaseous matters with an offensive odor. In the present study, we investigated the collection of submicron particles using a commercial ESP and the decomposition of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) using the nonthermal plasma reactors since the offensive odor of tobacco smoke is caused mainly by acetaldehyde molecules. For an ESP, we evaluated the particle-size dependent collection efficiency using monodispersed aerosol because little investigation has been conducted in this area. For acetaldehyde decomposition, more than 90% of decomposition efficiency was obtained with the use of nonthermal plasma under dry condition. However, the decomposition deteriorated under humidified condition. Higher collection efficiency was achieved with a particle size of 0.6 μm than that of 0.3 μm although the overall collection efficiency exceeded 99%. The combination of ESP and nonthermal plasma technologies leads to the breakthrough of conventional indoor electric air cleaner technology.
