Abstract

After the oil crisis, all the commercial and residential buildings were designed with tightly sealed envelopes to minimize the air leakage through the building to save energy. Since buildings were no longer able to breathe naturally, indoor air quality problems started to occur. Currently, there is still a dilemma between these two parameters inside the buildings. To address IAQ issues and reduce the energy loads in mechanical conditioning systems, the plant-based air filtering system is designed. The proposed system is a hydroponic system (plants growing without soil) that is composed of a mixed bed of activated carbon adsorbents and porous glass stones that capture and filter the toxins in the air. HVAC‐integrated plant walls that include growth media are designed to support the plants and capturing toxins. These toxins are then metabolized by the plants which can create a self‐regenerating filtration system that requires less outdoor air being fed into the building, thereby reducing the conditioning costs associated with HVAC. This paper is focused on the durability of the design and fabrication of a plant-based air filtering system from an air quality and energy reduction perspective.