Project entry 2020 for North America

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    The WHO calls air pollution “the biggest environmental risk to [human] health”. Urban air handling systems do not always address persistently high levels of pollutants, despite reducing indoor air quality issues by ventilating indoor spaces with filtered exterior air. Preliminary research suggests active plant-based systems may address these areas: decreasing ventilation requirements/building energy use while benefiting indoor inhabitant health. Image in collaboration with fellows at Yale CEA.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    The photosynthetic capacity of plants, alongside metabolic activity of microorganisms associated with plant root systems (the most diverse microbial communities in the world), could evolve to concurrently break down manmade pollutants such as VOCs, sequester particulate matter, and alter indoor CO2 combating human health related impacts of poor indoor air quality. Image in collaboration with fellows at Yale CEA.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    Multi-scalar building-integrated vegetated indoor air bioremediation. Image collaboration: Yale CEA.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    AMPs wall testing for air quality and microbiome. Image Collaboration: Yale CEA.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    Large scale installation in PSACII. Air quality and microbiome tests. Image Collaboration: Yale CEA.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    Preliminary testing for formaldehyde remediation by growing media. Image collaboration: Yale CEA/RPI.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    AMPs within an Ecological Living Module (ELM). Image Collaboration: Yale CEA and the UN.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    ELM interior and exterior green walls. Image Collaboration: Yale CEA and the UN.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    ELM interior and exterior green walls. Image Collaboration: Yale CEA and the UN.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    ELM interior and exterior green walls. Image Collaboration: Yale CEA and the UN.

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    Pure Inhale – Connecticut

    Phoebe Mankiewicz, Yale CEA Interdisciplinary PhD Student.

Last updated: June 15, 2021 New Haven, CT, USA

Vegetated indoor air bioremediation: Towards environmentally-conscious performance

Emerging research suggests filtering urban air through vegetated structures may reduce carbon dioxide levels through photosynthesis, diminish Volatile Organic Compound loads by utilizing root-microbial community metabolisms, while removing particulate matter through surface sequestration on growth media, likely improving inhabitant health in the process. In comparison, incumbent mechanical/physio-chemical air handling systems do not always adequately address persistently high levels of these pollutants, and are simultaneously energetically costly: of the 97.7 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) used in the continental US in 2017, approximately 13% was spent keeping indoor spaces habitable through the conditioning, filtration, and ventilation of indoor air.

Vegetated indoor air bioremediation: Towards environmental justice and social inclusion

Vegetated structures utilizing active air flow could address systemic urban challenges with a grassroots model, in direct contrast with many attempted solutions to these seemingly disparate issues which tend to tackle one at a time. While emerging research suggests the potential for filtering urban air through vegetated structures to benefit the physical health of urban inhabitants, assuming an agricultural species plant selection, these structures could also serve as a nexus for nutritionally rich fresh vegetables in food deserts which often coincide with poor air quality, as well as a mode of hands-on continuous education for neighbors to teach themselves and each other to maintain community resources, strengthening educational prospects and community connectivity.

A 21st century agriculture: Produce and performance

To date, fifty-five percent of humans live in cities. Support and maintenance of inhabitability for densely populated areas generates one billion tons of waste annually, contributing to urban air quality issues in the process. Modern air-handling systems reduce indoor air issues by ventilating indoor spaces with filtered exterior air, however they are energetically costly and contribute significantly to urban energy use and carbon footprints. While there remain gaps in our knowledge of how to scale fundamental mechanisms involved in indoor air bioremediation, the relationship between photosynthetic CO2 sequestration and pollutant-reducing metabolically active root-zones is an opportunity to design alternative air remediation systems with a multitude of systemic benefits for urban life.