Performance of Ventilation, Filtration, and Upper-Room UVGI in Mitigating PM 2.5 and SARS-CoV-2 Levels

Atefeh Abbaspour (), Hamidreza Seraj, Ali Bahadori-Jahromi () and Alan Janbey
Additional contact information
Atefeh Abbaspour: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK
Hamidreza Seraj: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK
Ali Bahadori-Jahromi: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK
Alan Janbey: Research Department, London College, London TW5 9QX, UK

Clean Technol., 2025, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: This study aimed to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) in an existing college building in London by addressing two key pollutants: PM 2.5 particles (from indoor and outdoor sources) and SARS-CoV-2 as a biological contaminant. Various mitigation strategies were assessed, including hybrid ventilation that combined CIBSE-recommended rates with partial window and door opening. The effectiveness of HEPA-based air purifiers (APs) and upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) systems with different intensities was also evaluated for reducing viral transmission and the basic reproduction number (R 0 ). To manage PM 2.5 in the kitchen, HEPA and in-duct MERV13 filters were integrated into the ventilation system. Results showed that hybrid ventilation outperformed mechanical systems by achieving greater reductions in infection probability (P I ) and maintained higher performance as the number of infectors increased, showing only a 2.5–16% drop, compared to 35% with mechanical ventilation. An R 0 analysis indicated that UVGI is more suitable in high-risk settings, while APs combined with hybrid ventilation are effective in lower-risk scenarios. The findings also emphasize that combining Supply–Exhaust ventilation with APs or MERV13 filters is crucial for maintaining safe IAQ in kitchens, aligning with the WHO’s short- and long-term exposure limits.

Keywords: indoor air quality; upper-room UVGI; multi-zonal modeling; air purifier; in-duct filtration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/3/53/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/3/53/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:7:y:2025:i:3:p:53-:d:1685442

Access Statistics for this article

Clean Technol. is currently edited by Ms. Shary Song

More articles in Clean Technol. from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().