IAQ APPLICATIONS

This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, February 2012. Copyright 2012 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
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Ozone and Air Filters

By Charles Seyffer, Member ASHRAE

zone can be hazardous to humans even at low levels. Exposure

to ozone is linked to premature death, asthma, bronchitis,

heart attack, and other cardiopulmonary problems. Long-term exposure to ozone has been shown to increase the risk of death from
respiratory illness.

A study1 of 450,000 people living in

U.S. cities showed a significant correlation between ozone levels and respiratory
illness over the 18-year follow-up period.
The study revealed that people living
in cities with high ozone levels such as
Houston and Los Angeles had a more
than 30% increased risk of dying from
lung disease.
In indoor spaces, ozone, as well as the
reaction products of ozone interacting
with chemicals found indoors. can cause
health concerns. ASHRAEs Environmental Health Committee (EHC) issued
an Emerging Issue Brief on Ozone and
Indoor Chemistry2 in January 2011 that
reports on research showing that safe
O3 levels would be lower than 10 ppb.
The EHC document describes several
actions that can be taken to reduce health
impacts of ozone and associated byproducts in indoor spaces. These actions
include: removing ozone at outdoor air
intakes; minimizing ozone emissions
from equipment used indoors; reducing
concentrations of terpenes and carbonyls (aldehydes) using source reduction
and gas phase removal equipment; and
using high-efficiency particulate filters
(e.g., MERV3 13 or greater) to remove
secondary organic aerosols (SOA) and
ultrafine particles (UFP) that are created
as by-products of ozone reactions.
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Existing Strategies for Improved IAQ

Engineers designing new buildings,
and retrofitting air-conditioning systems
in older buildings, must consider outdoor
ozone as a pollutant that may have to
be removed. Since 1989, ASHRAE has
referenced ozone as a contaminant of
concern in Standard 62.1, Ventilation
for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality. The
standard references the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)4
as published by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The NAAQS
includes level details on six pollutants
harmful to public health and the environment; particulate matter, nitrogen oxides,
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead
and ozone.
For buildings with air change rates
of more than 1.5 air changes per hour,
ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010 requires
air filters for ozone removal when the
most recent three-year average annual fourth-highest daily maximum
eight-hour average ozone concentration
exceeds 0.107 ppm (2.09 mg/m3). The
EHC Emerging Issue Brief provides
information that suggests even this level
is far above levels of potential concern.
Unfortunately, more than 100 million
people in the United States live in areas
where ozone may be elevated and the
outdoor levels must be considered in

the design phase, according to the current values published in the NAAQS.
Although ozone may be detected by some
individuals at levels as low as 10 ppm
(chlorine-like odor), its harmful effects
exist at much lower levels.
ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard
189.1-2009, Standard for the Design
of High-Performance Green Buildings,
specifies that: when the building is located in an area that is designated nonattainment with a national ambient air
quality standards for ozone as determined
by the authority having jurisdiction (in the
U.S., by the U.S. EPA) air cleaners having a removal efficiency of no less than
the one specified in ASHRAE Standard
62.1, Section 6.2.1.2, shall be provided
to clean outdoor air prior to its introduction to occupied spaces. Standard 189.1
also strengthens the requirements to investigate and address outdoor air quality
that are contained in Standard 62.1 and
mandates remedial actions for the benefit
of building occupants.
Ozone may also be produced internally
by any item that has an electric field. In todays world of desktop computers, printers,
copiers, electric motors, etc., we seem to
be creating our own ozone chemical soup.

Role of Air Filtration

Historically, engineers have done an
exemplary job of addressing particulate
matter with the application of air filters
to reduce human exposure in commercial
buildings. Todays air filters address bacteria, nuisance dusts and other particles
that may enter the lungs and cause damage. Still, many systems use filters with
such a low efficiency that although they
keep coils clean, they do not address the
critical submicron particulate related to
human health.

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February 2012

For gaseous contaminants, efforts to remove these substances

have been less than stellar. Solutions have been available using
adsorption, absorption or chemisorption. In most cases, these types
of filters only have been applied if the application was considered
toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive or odorous to a level considered
unacceptable to the building occupants, or the non-human contents
of the building were judged to be especially important (e.g., in
museums and some specific manufacturing facilities).
Activated carbon air filters provide the most reasonable
solution to reducing ozone exposure in commercial HVAC applications. At the same time, carbon air filters will reduce other
molecular contaminants such as volatile organic compounds
(VOCs), bio-effluents and organic-based odors that may be
considered objectionable to building occupants.
The reaction between ozone and carbon is catalytic in that
the ozone is not adsorbed on the surface of the carbon as are
other gases, but rather the reaction will form carbon dioxide
and oxygen (C + 2 O3 CO2 + 2 O2). Ozone does not have a
significant effect on the life of the carbon filter in the system,
but the carbon will be affected by other gas contaminants that
it will adsorb at the same time. When installed in a system with
little or no challenge for the carbon surface area by other gases,
the air filters affinity for removing ozone is almost indefinite.

For practical purposes the air filter should be replaced when its
efficiency on ozone removal falls below 50%. This determination may be made by removing a filter from the system and
subjecting it to an ozone removal efficiency test at an air filter
testing laboratory. Once a baseline of ozone removal efficiency
degradation is established a repetitive or preventive maintenance
(PM) schedule may be formulated for filter replacement.

Manufacturers Direction
One of the detriments facing HVAC engineers is the lack
of product literature specific to the use of carbon for ozone
removal. Manufacturers have been slow to provide this
information, as the primary use of gaseous contaminant
removal filtration has centered on hazardous or gas-specific
applications. Although the benefits of carbon air filtration
have been unquestionable, the application of such has been
considered costly, references to servicing or replacing the
filters have been difficult to find, and there has been anxiety in applying carbon that is based upon a perceived lack
of information to apply the products properly. In contrast,
particulate filter information is readily available, there are
defined filter evaluation methods to address contaminant
removal (ASHRAE Standard 52.2-2007, Method of Testing

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February 2012

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IAQ APPLICATIONS
General Ventilation Air-Cleaning Devices for Removal Ef- to the life of the filter. In many cases, with ozone being the
ficiency by Particle Size), and pressure drop is the accepted contaminant of concern, the carbon filter change interval
could be expressed in years.
methodology for considering filter replacement.
In 2008, ASHRAE published ASHRAE Standard 145.1,
Laboratory Test Method for Assessing the Performance of Bottom Line
The current driving factor for using carbon in HVAC systems
Gas-Phase Air-Cleaning Systems: Loose Granular Media. Two
of the critical items in the test include an adsorption curve is the desire to reduce the amount of outside air brought into a
demonstrating the filters efficiency versus time and a testing building. Reducing the amount of outside air to save operating
time to reach 50% efficiency. More than 10 years in develop- expense by addressing both particulate and gaseous contamiment, the document is a consensus of air filter manufacturers nants with air filtration is huge. Many engineers still use 20 cfm
and recognized industry authorities. The recently published (9.4 L/s) of outside air per person as their baseline although
Standard 145.2-2011 is a laboratory
method for evaluating full-scale devices
in ductwork.
Some manufacturers actually have been In many cases, with ozone being the contaminant of
providing ozone removal data since the
1980s. One manufacturer used numeric concern, the carbon filter change interval could be exdesignators such as 25, 80 and 95 on some
products to designate ozone removal effi- pressed in years.
ciency, although it was not clearly defined
in the literature. Air filter manufacturers
are already applying the testing methods
prescribed in Standards 145.1 and 145.2 in anticipation of Standard 62.1 now requires more detailed calculations than
a simple one value fits all determination. Using the Indoor
fulfilling this engineering data need.
The ozone removal efficiency value published in manufac- Air Quality Procedure (IAQP) as defined in Standard 62.1, by
turers literature also will be dependent upon the velocity of applying particulate and gaseous filtration, offers the end user
air through the filter. Residence time, the period during which energy savings for the typical commercial building that can
the air stays in contact with the carbon, is the most critical be impressive dependent upon the size of the building and the
consideration when applying carbon. Reducing the airflow or number of occupants.
Two committees, one under the guidance of ASHRAE Stanincreasing residence time, from the manufacturers standard
filter velocity of 500 to 300 fpm (2.54 to 1.52 m/s) can increase dard 62.1 committee, and one under the guidance of the U.S.
the filters ozone efficiency by 30% or more. HVAC engineers Green Building Council (USGBC), are working diligently to
have been derating system design velocities to reduce particu- provide specific direction for applying air filtration to reduce
late air filter resistance to airflow since the 1980s. The driving energy expenditures in commercial buildings. To provide input
force has been energy savings because increasing the size of a to either the 4.IAQP Task Group for ASHRAE Standard 62.1
filter bank by a factor of one-third can decrease the resistance or IAQ Performance Testing Working Group of the USGBC
to airflow by two-thirds, resulting in possibly high fan energy contact: charles.seyffer@mail.ashrae.org.
savings. The application of carbon for ozone removal at the
lower velocities will have the added benefit of increasing the References
1. Jerrett, M. 2009. Long-term ozone exposure and mortality. N.
carbons efficiency on ozone removal.
Manufacturers are also reaching consensus on recommen- Engl. J. Med. 360(11):10851095.
2. ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee. 2011. Emerging
dations for gaseous filter replacement, a much more difficult
Issue Brief: Ozone and Indoor Chemistry. www.ashrae.org/members/
task to judge as carbon filters do not increase in resistance page/189.
as they age as do particulate air filters. Determining ozone
3. ASHRAE Standard 52.2-2007, Method of Testing General Venremoval efficiency is a relatively simple test. To develop a tilation Air-Cleaning Devices for Removal Efficiency by Particle Size.
4. EPA. 2011. National Ambient Air Quality Standards. www.epa.
preventive maintenance schedule for servicing carbon filters,
a single air filter should be removed from the system and gov/air/criteria.html.
forwarded to a testing lab for ozone removal efficiency testing. This should be repeated every six months until the filter Bibliography
Beyond Ozone: Cleaning Outdoor Air for IAQ, Chris Muller, Techefficiency is less than 50% of the published efficiency of the
nical Services Manager, Purafil, Indoor Environment Connections,
filter. At this point the filters should be scheduled for change.
November 2009, www.ieconnections.com/pdfs/newsletter/2009/
Since average atmospheric ozone values remain relatively IEC-11-2009.pdf.
constant (although ozone levels change throughout the day
Charles Seyffer is manager of technical services at Camfil
and seasons), a PM program can be designed around the
50% time established value from the testing period relative Farr in Riverdale, N.J.
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