A New Laboratory Scale Methodology to Test Portable Air Cleaner (PAC) Devices: Optimization and Application

Given that people spend on average more than 80% of their time indoors, monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ) is of the utmost importance for the safeguard of human health. Indeed, due to penetration from outdoors and the presence of specific indoor sources, poor IAQ is not uncommon. The use of portable air cleaners (PACs) is one of many options to improve IAQ. The market offers many products, but not all of them have reliable documentation on their effectiveness. Literature standard methods for testing PACs toward pollutants require extensive resources. In this work, we developed a new laboratory scale methodology based on a small, easy to use, economical batch system to test the efficiency of PACs. With this method, three commercial PACs were successfully tested for effectiveness toward volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM). The method proved successful, and the results highlighted the importance of conducting these tests, in addition to field investigations.