High Efficiency Sorption System for Removing Harmful Contaminants from Indoor Air

Project Abstract According to the EPA, indoor levels of pollutants are often 2-5 times and up to 100 times higher than outdoor levels and people spend ~90% of their time indoors. The primary causes of poor indoor air quality are pollution sources that emit irritating or dangerous gases and particles. The sources of indoor air pollution can be fuel burning appliances, cooking and cigarette smoke, household cleaning items, and outgassing of organics from building materials and furniture. Exposure of these indoor pollutants can result in compromised health and occasionally even death. In this Phase I SBIR project, TDA Research (TDA) will address this need by developing a high efficiency adsorption system for removing contaminants/toxins commonly found in indoor air including HCN, NH3, NO2, CO, and VOCs to sub ppb levels (well below the EPA permissible exposure level to comply with WHO recommendations to reduce the incidence of cancer) to achieve risk based indoor air-standards. Our system will feature a proprietary sorbent that offers superior adsorption capacities for common contaminants such as VOCs (including formaldehyde and in particular chlorinated compounds), and NO2, and with estimated lifetimes of 2-2.5 years, much greater than those offered by current devices that have activated carbon filters that need to be changed every 3-12 months. Our system will also feature a long- life ambient temperature catalyst that will be used to oxidize dangerous carbon monoxide into CO2 (a feature currently not offered by current systems in the market).