Hyun-Jin Choi’s research while affiliated with Korea Environment Institute and other places

There is an increasing demand of air filters with a high collection performance, i.e., high collection efficiency and low pressure drop, for the application to indoor air cleaning. Air filters consisting of nanofibers have attracted great interests since they may have a low pressure drop because of slip flow effect and high collection efficiency due to enhanced interception effect. Although various nanofiber filters are available on the market, their collection performance is not as high as expected by the conventional filtration theory because non-uniform packing of fibers plays a significant role in the nanofiber filtration. In the present review, the present status of development of high performance air filters are reviewed. We may use air filters not only for the removal of particles but also for the classification of particles by selecting an appropriate filter by operating it under an optimized filtration condition for classification. Other topics introduced in the present review are the applications of filters and metal screen for aerosol classification and the use of centrifugal force for enhancing collection efficiency without increasing the pressure drop. Fullsize Image

Highly charged aerosol nanoparticles of a molecular size (< 5 nm) exhibit complex behaviors caused by random (Brownian) motion and electrostatic interactions (image force) with solid surfaces. The classical single fiber theory, however, can only partially describe the complex filtration mechanism of highly charged nanoparticles. We began this study by employing the Langevin Dynamics (LD) Method to simulate the random motion and deposition of highly charged nanoparticles on a single fiber. The single fiber efficiencies predicted by the LD simulation did not agree with data from experiments using electrosprayed highly charged molecular ions. To explain this mismatch and search for other factors that could potentially affect the capturing mechanism, we investigated the influence of the mesh structure. While the image force exerted a significant influence as the packing density decreased, the influence tended to oppose the theoretical predictions. These results suggested that the fiber-fiber interaction in a wire screen with high packing density significantly influences the collection of multiply charged molecular ions. A new theoretical model describing the influence of inter-fiber interaction will be required to clarify how highly charged molecular ions are captured by image force.

The slip flow effect is often brought out to explain the reduction in pressure drop for nanofiber filters. Kirsch, Stechkina, and Fuchs (1973) studied the slip flow effect on the pressure drop of fibrous filters consisting of micron fibers, and proposed an empirical equation to predict the dependence of the dimensionless drag, F, on the Knudsen number, Kn, with considering non-uniformity of fiber packing. However, their empirical equation was derived based on the experiments with filters consisting of micron fibers so that the empirical equation is not yet verified for nanofiber filters. In the present work, we used various commercially available nanofiber filters with various physical properties, and the pressure drop was measured at low pressures in order to examine the validity of the empirical equation. As a result, we found that the empirical equation is valid even for nanofiber filters with a large inhomogeneity factor at a large Kn up to 20.

In the present work, the centrifugal filter proposed by the authors was applied to classify aerosol particles followed by the detection of total mass or number concentrations so as to measure the size distribution of aerosol particles. The structure and operating condition of the centrifugal filter were optimized in order to attain sharp separation curves with various cut-off sizes between 0.3 and 10 μm. The aerosol penetrating the centrifugal filter at various rotation speeds was measured with a photometer to determine the total mass concentration. The virtue of this system is that the cut-off size is varied just by scanning the rotation speed of filter and that it can be applied to the measurement of high concentration aerosols without dilution by choosing an appropriate filter medium. As a result, the centrifugal filter was successfully applied to measure the size distribution of solid particles in size ranging from 0.3 to 10 μm. Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research

There is an increasing demand of air filters with a high collection performance, i.e., high collection efficiency and low pressure drop, for the application to indoor air cleaning. Air filters consisting of nanofibers have attracted great interests since they may have a low pressure drop because of slip flow effect and high collection efficiency due to interception. Although various nanofiber filters are available on the market, their collection performance is not as high as expected by the conventional filtration theory because non-uniform packing of fibers plays a significant role. In the present work, the collection performance of nanofiber (780 nm) and microfiber (11.2 µm) mixed filters with various mixing fractions was studied in order to maximize the quality factor of filter, qF, as a function of mixing fraction of nanofibers. The collection performance of mixed fiber filters was predicted by using theoretical equations reported by Bao et al. (1998) for bimodal distribution of fibers. As a result, it was found that the mixed fiber filters had a uniform fiber packing compared to laminated filters and that the collection efficiency was well predicted by introducing the inhomogeneity factor calculated for the filter consisting of two distinct fiber sizes. Furthermore, we found that the mixed fiber filter with the nanofiber mixing fraction of 5% in mass had the highest quality factor.

Pleated filter bags have received a considerable amount of attention due to their higher filtration area compared to that of cylindrical filter bags. They can be used to increase both the filtration efficiency and dust holding capacity, as it is possible to decrease the filtration velocity when using the same amount of exhaust gas. However, the effective filtration area of pleated filter bags remains uncertain, despite the fact that it is an important design parameter in pulse-jet bag house systems. The effective filtration area of a pleated filter bag is determined in this study by assuming the effective filtration area (50%, 60%, 70% and 100% of the theoretical filtration area) and comparing its filter cleaning characteristics with those of a cylindrical filter bag. The filtration characteristics of a pleated filter bag with optimal geometry were investigated under the conditions of a filtration velocity of 1.2 m/min and a dust concentration of 10 g/m³. As a result, we found that the pleated filter bag assessed here had an effective filtration area of approximately 50 to 60%, in contrast to the theoretical filtration area, due to the dead space caused by filter pleating. In addition, particle clogging in the outer pleating section of the pleated filter bag significantly affected the decrease in the effective filtration area.

We investigated the capturing mechanisms of highly charged macromolecular ions of polyethylene glycol electrosprayed onto a metal screen. Our experiments assessed how the charge state, size of the macromolecular ions, and filtration velocity affected the penetration of the ions through the metal screen. The single fiber efficiencies were plotted as functions of the Peclet number and image force parameter. Highly charged molecular ions had much higher collection efficiencies than neutralized macromolecules, suggesting the presence of a strong image force between the ions and metal surface. The single fiber efficiency by image force was proportional to the square root of an image force parameter predicted by theory. When using the prefactor of 9.7 proposed by Alonso et al. (2007), we found fair agreement between the experimental data and theoretical predictions on the collection efficiency of highly charged molecular ions with mobility diameters from 2.6 to 4.8 nm and numbers of electrical charges from 2 to 7. The experimental evidence from our study reveals that image force contributes strongly to the collection of multicharged macromolecular ions by a metal wire screen.

Silica is an essential material in the electronics industries of LCDs and OLEDs, which particularly require high purity. This study attempted to find the optimal design of a magnetic separator for silica sand containing iron compounds using CFD simulation. Three designs of magnetic separation were prepared and their efficiency was examined. As a result of the evaluation, the sufficient contact of particulate silica with the surface of magnetic emitters improved the magnetic separation effects. In addition, the loss of SiO_2 and the removal rate of Fe_2O_3 depended strongly on the particle size, flow rate and magnetic flux density. In addition, magnetic separation is quite effective for a particle size of 10?m with a 0.2 m/s flow rate.

Electret filters have been used widely to collect particles because of their low pressure drop and high collection efficiency due to the electrostatic attraction between the particles and filter. However, the collection efficiency of these filters decreases over time due to charge degradation. Therefore, a unipolar charger using a corona discharge was combined with an electret filter to overcome this decrease. The highest particle collection efficiency for 70 nm, uncharged particles occurred with a fresh electret filter was 34.0%, whereas a neutralized filter had a collection efficiency of 32.6%. However, when fresh and neutralized electret filters were used with a unipolar charger (electret field: 1.9 kV cm –1), the highest particle collection efficiencies of 99.8% and 98.2%, respectively, were obtained and appeared at the electrode-to-mesh distance, a distance similar to the duct diameter. The distance between the tip of the discharge electrode and filter, which can be predicted using Sigmond's law, affected the charge density value on the filter surface. The ozone concentration was negligible under optimum conditions for particle collection. Therefore, using an electret filter combined with a corona discharge has good potential for improving air purifiers.

The electret filter is a potential component to remove airborne particles due to its high collection efficiency and low pressure drop. However, its filtration performance is gradually decreased by exposure to organic solvents, which limits the application of electret filters. The effect of ethanol exposure on the filtration performance of polypropylene electret filters was investigated experimentally to clarify the charge decay phenomenon in this study. Experimental results revealed that filter performance is strongly dependent upon the challenged mass and existing state of an ethanol solvent. The filter performance was drastically degraded by exposure to ethanol droplets generated from a solution with ethanol concentrations above 30%; however, it was maintained during exposure to ethanol vapors. This tendency was also seen in the surface potentials of the exposed filter media. In addition, we found that the critical challenging amount of ethanol droplets was in the vicinity of 0.045 g/cm² to neutralize a tested electret filter in this study. Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research