As modern society has emerged and developed, the subway has established itself as a representative means of transportation in the city due to its speed, accuracy, and accessibility. According to the Indoor Air Quality Management Act, underground stations have established and managed the maintenance and recommendation standards for PM10, PM2.5, CO2, CO, HCHO, NO2, Rn, VOCs However, th the standards for airborne mold has not been applied for subway stations even though management for the health effect of exposure to mold is necessay. In this study, the correlation with major contributing factors was analyzed by measuring the concentration of airborne molds in the indoor air of underground stations and through literature research. It was confirmed that there was a correlation between the concentration of airborne molds in subway stations and the major contributing factors. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the concentration of airborne molds became higher as the location of the platform became deeper underground, during periods of congestion, and especially in summer. There was no significant correlation with the year of construction. Our findings indicate that appropriate management measures should be devised in response to such contributing factors.

In this study, the adsorption/desorption performance of toluene was evaluated using zeolite adsorbent to replace activated carbon with one-off and ignition characteristics. For the proper operation of the VOCs adsorption/desorption and condensate recovery steps, the operating range by various adsorption/desorption temperatures was selected. The adsorbent is a bead-type zeolite, which was put into an adsorption tower of 10 LPM scale. As a result, it was demonstrated that 0.079 mg/g was adsorbed at a low temperature (20°C) during adsorption. In the case of desorption, it was found that VOCs adsorbed on the adsorbent were completely recovered after the desorption operation at 220°C for about 160 minutes. However, in the heating rate step for desorption, it was not possible to maintain an appropriate heating rate by filling the tower with zeolite. This was complemented by applying a copper plate with high thermal conductivity, and it was shown that the time was shortened by about 10 minutes or more. When VOCs are emitted at high concentrations during the desorption process, they can be reused as energy resources through low-temperature maintenance, and a condensation method was attempted. The efficiency of condensing chiller (cooler) with temperature control and liquid nitrogen condensing was compared. It was found that the chiller condensing efficiency increased as the temperature decreased. In the case of liquid nitrogen condensation, the liquid nitrogen temperature was maintained at -196°C, showing a stable efficiency of 90%.

Seoul has installed mechanical air filters in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of city buses to improve their indoor air quality since late 2019. We evaluated particle removal efficiencies of the filter in a wind tunnel, and clean air delivery rates (CADRs) of the systems and a household air purifier in the buses, following the test standards. The filter showed the efficiencies of 91% and 97.6%, 88% and 97.9%, and 78% and 95.2% for 0.35 μm particles and PM2.5 at 1.0m/s, 1.5m/s, and 2.0m/s, respectively. The efficiencies rose with an increase in the particle size and the filters had a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) rating of 15. The CADRs for PM2.5 and flow rate of the systems were 12.7m3/min and 17.9m3/min, 16.6m3/min and 25.4m3/min, 18.7m3/min and 33.6m3/min, and 23.3m3/min and 47.1m3/min on the operation mode of 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The CADRs of the systems were 3.8-7.1 times higher than those of the air purifier, but single-pass removal efficiencies of the former were 0.56-0.81 lower than those of the latter.

A field study was conducted to reduce airborne bacteria by supplying active ions to indoor spaces used by vulnerable human groups spending substantial amounts of time in places such as schools and hospitals. In an experiment conducted during school hours (8:00-15:00), the average number of airborne bacteria in classrooms was 345.53 CFU/m3 or more without active ions. However, ion supply reduced the airborne bacteria to an average of 113.23 CFU/m3, indicating an efficiency of 61.61%. As a result of tests in 33 rooms used for surgery in small and middle sized hospitals, ion supply for 2 to 4 hours reduced the average airborne bacteria concentration from 243.88 CFU/m3 to 104.34 CFU/m3, representing a 41.53% reduction. A laboratory test to confirm the ion activity has shown that the mortality rate of E. coli used as a test bacterium increased with exposure time to ions. The initial colony number of E. coli was 251 CFU, but decreased to 4 CFU after 60 minutes of exposure to active ions. Therefore, it was confirmed that the supply of active ions can contribute to the control of airborne bacteria in the indoor environment of schools, hospitals and other public facilities.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from industrial gas cause equipment failure and fire accidents due to the rapid flow and concentration changes of VOCs. Therefore, it is crucial to attenuate the concentration of VOCs to ensure a constant emission rate before the control process. This study proposed an encapsulation technique to fabricate calcium- alginate gel beads containing paraffin oil as an effective absorbent. The prepared absorbent was physically characterized, and a column test observed its absorption capacity. When the oil content was 30%, the prepared beads showed the best spherical shape, attaining 96% emulsion stability, 0.014 sphericity factor, 62.7% weight variation ratio, and 4.21 ± 0.06mm diameter. In the column test that was packed with the prepared beads, the toluene absorption capacity was 497.6mg/kg. The net effect of the beads was to attenuate the peaks of toluene concentration, and to make the VOC-laden air stream more receptive for the subsequent treatment unit.

This study installed and evaluated the efficiency of a radon barrier membrane, radon mat, and radon well in the removal and reduction of radon gas that originates from the soil and flows indoors. The study aims to present a fundamental and long-term solution to radon reduction in buildings by preventing soil radon, which is the main source of radon gas, from migrating indoors. A radon barrier membrane, radon mat, and radon well were developed and verified, and the radon reduction effect of each system was evaluated. Through applying a special radon gas blocking film with a 5-layer structure, the radon barrier membrane prevents radon gas particles from passing through the polymer deposited on the radon blocking film. The radon mat is a type of radon reduction construction method that induces radon gas generated from the soil under the building to move in the desired direction through the plate-structured pressure reducing panel and discharges radon gas to the outside of the building through an exhaust pipe and fan installed at the edge. In addition, the radon well can also be applied to special structures such as old buildings and historical sites where it is difficult to directly reduce radon concentration within the building foundation, because the intake area can be controlled and, therefore, the method can be applied in a variety of environments and ranges. In the case of Intervention 1 (installing a radon barrier membrane and radon mat), the soil radon was reduced by 24.7%. Intervention 2 (installing a radon barrier membrane, radon mat, and radon well) reduced the soil radon by 45.1%, indicating that the effect of reducing the soil radon concentration was 1.8 times higher compared with installing only the radon barrier membrane and radon mat. The measurement showed that the indoor radon concentration was reduced by 46.5%, following the reduction in soil radon concentration through Interventions 1 and 2, demonstrating the effect of reducing indoor radon gas by installing the radon barrier membrane, radon mat, and radon well. Through the production and installation of prototype systems, this study confirmed the reduction effect of radon concentration in soil and indoor air. These systems achieved a higher efficiency at a relatively low cost than that achieved with the existing radon reduction methods applied in Korea and abroad.

Although airborne wear particles (AWPs) generated from wheel-rail contacts are the major source of particulate matter (PM) in subway systems, studies on reducing the generation of such particles in order to enhance air quality are extremely rare. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of applying water-lubricant (applying tap water) on improving air quality by reducing the mass concentration (MC) of AWPs from wheel-rail contacts at a train velocity of 73 km/h using a twin-disk rig. An optical particle sizer was used to measure the MC of particles with the diameter range of 0.3 μm~10 μm. The results showed that the generation trends regarding PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 were different for dry and water-lubricated conditions: all three PMs showed an increasing-decreasing trend with slip rate under dry conditions; however, they were almost constant with slip rate under water-lubricated conditions. The particle size distributions were also different for dry and water-lubricated conditions: the peak occurred in multi-modal with the largest peak at approximately 6 μm in diameter under dry conditions; whereas, the peak occurred in bi-modal with the largest peak at approximately 0.9 μm in diameter under water-lubricated conditions. In addition, MCs were mostly smaller under water-lubricated conditions than dry conditions except at approximately 0.9 μm in diameter. Applying water significantly decreased PM1~2.5 and PM2.5~10 by more than 95%. This caused a decrease in PM2.5 and PM10 by 48.1% and 78.5%, respectively. On the other hand, applying water increased PM0.3~1 (i.e., PM1) by 52.8%, possibly owing to the effect of water vapor and mineral crystals from tap water. Overall, these findings indicate that water-lubrication can improve air quality in subway systems by reducing the MC of APWs generated from wheel-rail contacts. This study may provide a reference for future studies seeking to improve air quality in subway systems by reducing AWPs generated from wheel-rail contacts by applying lubricants.

In this study, a two-stage electrostatic precipitator (ESP) was developed using a novel automatic dry cleaning device to reduce the ultrafine particles in subway stations. Collection efficiency was evaluated with a pilot scale ESP (1.2m× 1.2m) and the scale of the test duct was half of the subway air handling unit. The maximum collection efficiency for 0.3 μm particles was 96.9%. In addition, we studied a method of automatic dry cleaning for maintenance of the ESP. The cleaning efficiency was analyzed according to the cleaning flow rate for each particle loading amount to achieve a recovery rate over 90%. In addition, we derived the equation to estimate the reduction in collection efficiency according to the particle loading amount. It was confirmed that the performance of the contaminated ESP was restored to the initial state by the automatic dry cleaning in this study and that the electrical energy consumption was 5 times lower compared to utilizing conventional water cleaning.