Filtering PM2.5 and meeting ISO requirements for the LEMS
Greetings from ARC! We have three interns hard at work at the lab this summer. Read on to learn more about their projects – a novel approach to clean up PM emissions, and development of the LEMS to meet the needs of Chinese users.
Filtering PM2.5
Engineering interns, Nick Murray (University of Dayton) and Jesse Andres (Oregon State University), have been working for about a month with smoke catching filters trying to ‘zero out’ emissions of PM 2.5. So far the PM emissions have been reduced from around 10mg/minute to around 3mg/minute. A $6 furnace filter catches a lot of the larger than 0.3 micron particles before they go up the chimney. We have better filters and hope that they will reduce smoke closer to ‘zero’. Some filters are washable and the idea is that filtering might join adding chimneys to cooking stoves, more complete combustion, increased ventilation, etc. as possible health protecting interventions. Filtering is commonplace in industrial applications and may also be cost effective on a much smaller scale. We’ll see!
The LEMS: Meeting New ISO Requirements
Zhang Yue (Beijing University of Chemical Technology) and Sam Bentson (ARC Lab Manager) are working together in the ARC lab to bring the LEMS into compliance with proposed ISO and new Chinese National Standard requirements. Sam created the affordable PM 2.5 gravimetric measurement system after the ISO/IWA made pump and filter measurements mandatory in 2010. In the same way, Sam and Zhang Yue are making sure that the LEMS will meet new regulations designed to improve accuracy and comparability.
Both projects represent ARC research and development at its best. Thanks so much to our funders! Thanks especially to Dee and Richard Lawrence from Proyecto Mirador whose generous grant is supporting Zhang Yue as he creates a better future for China and the world.