Molecular sieve 13X activated zeolite for CO2 filter in air purifier

Abstract

Indoor air quality is crucial for health. Room with high CO2 concentration can cause sick building syndrome such as dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and breathing difficulties. In addition to the air circulation, air filtering can reduce CO2 and improve the indoor air quality. The integration of activated zeolite into conventional air cleaning filters, which lack specific CO2 gas selectivity, presents a promising solution for CO2 reduction. Possessing cage-like porous structures and extra framework cations, activated zeolites have been known as gas adsorbers via physisorption and chemisorption mechanism. Activated zeolites have been reported to have high selectivity to CO2 gas via electrostatic interaction and trapping in small pores. In this study, we integrated the molecular sieve13X activated zeolite (MSAZ) with typical pore size around 1 nm to the conventional filters in air purifier which does not have specific selectivity to CO2 gas. By varying the MSAZ masses, we demonstrated that the MSAZ addition effectively reduce around 147 up to 316 ppm CO2 depending on the MSAZ mass and the air purifier fan speed. This value is extremely higher compared to 4 ppm CO2 reduction by commercial carbon filter without MSAZ. Larger mass and faster fan speed resulted in higher CO2 reduction. This study proves the prospective application of the MSAZ for CO2 reduction, to improve the indoor air quality and to avoid adverse effects of CO2 exposure.