根据美国环境保护署（U.S.Environmental Protection Agency）的数据，美国人90%的时间都在室内，室内空气的污染程度是室外空气的2到5倍。已发现建筑环境中的毒素会对居住者的身体和精神健康造成不利影响，估计美国每年损失1250亿美元的生产力。为了应对这一挑战，开发了一种新型植物空气过滤器，用于改善建筑物的室内空气质量（IAQ）。“生物墙”被设想为小型商业建筑供暖和制冷系统的一个组成部分，它将通过利用植物代谢有害挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的自然能力来去除空气中的污染物。 这项研究评估了一个环境室内的原型生物墙，该环境室内的温度、相对湿度和毒素水平都得到了精确监测。将已知量的污染物引入室内，然后在使用和不使用植物空气过滤器的情况下监测其腐烂情况。结果表明，生物墙将VOCs水平降低了60%，而不会对占用空间的相对湿度产生不利影响。这些数据用于开发和校准生物壁的热力学模型。从长远来看，这项研究可能会导致更广泛地使用基于性能的室内空气品质标准，通过减少用于维持高水平室内空气品质的室外通风量来节约能源。引文:ASHRAE交易- 第121卷，第一部分，伊利诺伊州芝加哥

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, where indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. Toxins in the built environment have been found to cause adverse physical and mental health effects on occupants and are estimated to cost the United States $125 billion annually in lost productivity. To address this challenge, a novel botanical air filter was developed for improving indoor air quality (IAQ) in buildings. The "biowall"is envisioned as an integral part of the heating and cooling system for ahomeor smallcommercial building, where it will remove airborne contaminants by leveraging the natural ability of plants to metabolize harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This research evaluated a prototype biowall in an environmental chamber where temperature, relative humidity, and toxin levels were precisely monitored. A known amount of contaminant was introduced into the chamber and then its decay was monitored both with and without the botanical air filter. The results showed that the biowall reducedVOClevels by 60% without having an adverse effect on the relative humidity of the occupied space. These data were used to develop and calibrate a thermodynamic model of the biowall. In the long term, this research could lead to the broader use of performance-based standards for IAQ that save energy by reducing the amount of outdoor ventilation air used for maintaining high levels of IAQ.