The author has been conducting research on UV based photocatalytic air purifier systems for the past 5 years to eliminate living organic germs, bacteria, pathogens, etc. from the cabin air. An HVAC system has been developed by using a filter impregnated by titanium di-oxide (TiO2) with UV lights to improve and maintain cabin air quality. The author has designed and constructed a 3rd generation HVAC unit for cabin air purification for automobiles that is based on UV photocatalytic process by using UV-C LEDs to eliminate viruses that typically exist in conditioned space.
The author has conducted tests with HVAC unit to determine power consumptions of air purification systems.
An HVAC unit that employs a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air filter) filter is compared with the same HVAC unit with UV & titanium dioxide based photocatalytic system. The pressure drops of the HEPA, particulate and TiO2 filters have been investigated that contribute to the overall energy consumption. The energy consumption of the UV-C & UV-A LEDs are also taken into account for the overall energy consumption analysis and comparison with the base system. Tests were conducted in the laboratory to determine pressure drops of the above two systems to compute energy consumption.
Based on the testing, the measured power consumption of an HVAC unit with a HEPA filter is on average higher by 57% (27~71% over the airflow range) over an UV based photocatalysis system. Detailed test data and analysis is presented in the paper.
The designed system can be used for conventional vehicles, EVs, ride sharing and for autonomous vehicles.
