Testing and comparing of portable air cleaners for indoor aerosol particle removal in laboratory environments

This study aims to test the performance of eight commercial portable air cleaner devices (ACDs) (i.e., ACD1-ACD8) in a standard test chamber (STC) to remove aerosols. The test has been performed according to ANSI/AHAM standard AC-1-2020, and also focus on the variation at particle size. In addition, it compares differences in clean air delivery rates (CADR) of three ACDs tested in the STC with results obtained from measurements in a large test chamber (LTC). Both tests were conducted in a controlled STC and LTC with a volume of 28.4 m3 and 202.0 m3, respectively. Multiple modes of each ACD were evaluated, with tests repeated three times for each mode. The results show the difference in performance of ACDs in terms of CADR, due to the specific technology used by ACD and the specifications of the system. Some devices were less able to remove the aerosols that were used as contaminant in this research. The results also show that there is an effect of the room size on the CADR performance, with larger effects at lower CADR values. Therefore, theoretical values from the standard should not be assumed as CADR values for performance in practice. The results of this paper are intended to support future experimental studies of aerosol removal using portable ACDs in more realistic situation, such as classrooms, to enable a comparison between theoretical and actual CADR values in practice.