A sustainable water vortex-based air purification for indoor air quality

Abstract

High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters are widely used in air purifiers to trap particular matter. However, from an environmental and economic standpoint, HEPA filters have a low cumulative clean mass and consume many resources for replacement or disposal after use. Herein, we present a water-vortex-based air purification method. The water vortex generated by a rotating impeller can efficiently capture particular matter of any size, owing to the increased surface area and circulation of water. Furthermore, the captured particular matters settle to the bottom due to the centrifugal force, enabling the water vortex-based air purifier to maintain 90% of its air purifying performance even after trapping 7.0 g of particular matters. On the other hand, a HEPA filter decreased its performance to less than 50% after trapping 3.5 g of particular matters because the HEPA filter captures particular matters by a deep-bed filtration mechanism.