Ionizer assisted air filtration for collection of submicron and ultrafine particles-evaluation of long-term performance and influencing factors.

Previous research has demonstrated that unipolar ionization can enhance the filter performance to collect airborne particles, aeroallergens, and airborne microorganisms, without affecting the filter pressure drop. However, there is a lack of research on the long-term system performance as well as the influence of environmental and operational parameters. In this paper, both field and laboratory tests were carried out to evaluate the long-term particle collection efficiency of a synthetic filter of class M6 with and without ionization. The effect of air velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and particle concentration were further investigated in laboratory tests. Results showed that ionization enhanced the filtration efficiency by 40%-units during most of the operation time. When the ionization system was managed by periodically switching the ionizer polarity, the filtration efficiency against PM0.3-0.5 was maintained above 50% during half a year. Furthermore, the pressure drop of the ionizer-assisted M6 filter was 25-30% lower than that of a filter of class F7. The evaluation of various influencing factors demonstrated that (1) air moisture reduced the increase of filtration efficiency; (2) higher upstream particle concentration and air velocity decreased the filtration efficiency; and (3) the air temperature had very limited effect on the filtration efficiency.