Effect of low-cost recirculating portable air filtration on aerosol particle deposition and concentration in a conference room: Experiment, theory, and simulation comparison

Respiratory particles exhaled when an individual speaks and breathes can facilitate respiratory virus transmission. Portable air purification units can potentially reduce transmission risk by decreasing the overall infectious particle concentration in a room. This is particularly important for rooms with an inability to be ventilated with adequate amounts of filtered or outdoor air. While the efficacy of portable air filtration units on particle concentrations has been well-studied, the impact of portable air purification units on particle deposition and, hence, indirect aerosol transmission, has received lesser study but may be important for smaller spaces with greater surface area-to-volume ratios. We conducted a series of experiments in a simulated, small conference room (34.4 m³, mimicking a common office meeting room) assessing (1) particle removal rates and (2) changes in deposition rate owing to the presence of a low-cost box fan air purifier (BFAP). To mimic an infectious aerosol source, a breathing simulator manikin was utilized in these experiments, which ejected fluorescein tagged particles in the 1–3 μm size range throughout each experimental condition, with a prescribed, periodic, breathing waveform mimicking human exhalation. We measured deposition flux on upward- and downward-facing horizontal surfaces throughout the room and determined aerosol mass concentrations using impingers; combined, these data enabled estimates of surface-specific deposition velocities. Aerosol size distributions within the room were also quantified using an optical particle spectrometer. CFD simulations and theoretical calculations were simultaneously conducted for comparison to the experimental data. Results suggested the BFAP unit, which had an effective clean air delivery rate of 540 m³ h⁻¹, increased the effective air exchange rate by 4.4x over baseline (20.1 vs. 4.5 h⁻¹). Notably, BFAP unit operation introduced greater deposition to surfaces near the breathing simulator manikin vs. baseline, with deposition velocities within 2 m of the breathing simulator being 10⁰ cm s⁻¹ during BFAP operation, compared to 10⁻² cm s⁻¹ during baseline. Deposition velocities and air exchange rates generated from the CFD and theoretical calculations largely agreed with those derived from experiments. Taken together, data suggest that in smaller rooms, such as conference rooms, deposition is not negligible as a mechanism of aerosol clearance, even for particles near 1–3 μm in diameter.