Cabin Air Filter

Poor air quality causes tiredness, respiratory problems, and cardiovascular disease and has adverse effects on nervous system. Nowadays, vehicles are equipped with cabin air filters in order to decrease the negative effects of air pollution problems on passengers during driving; however, the overall passenger protection against ultrafine particles (UFPs) is limited to 40−60% under outdoor air (OA) mode and the filtration efficiency varies as a function of particle size. The level of protection also varies with respect to the vehicle type and age in addition to the ventilation settings. Although operating the automotive ventilation system under recirculation (RC) mode can achieve a protection of ∼90% using the manufacturer-installed cabin air filters, it also causes passenger-exhaled CO2 to accumulate rapidly in the vehicle cabin. Exposures to high CO2 concentration of 2500 ppm can significantly reduce decision-making performances. Therefore, it is important to reduce both UFPs and CO2 concentrations simultaneously inside vehicles.
Cabin air filters containing a layer of nanofibers have higher filter efficiency with small increase in pressure drop compared to cabin air filters without nanofibers. The following chart compares the efficiency and pressure drop of FNM’s nanofiber coated cabin air filter with the commercial ones for 3 types of particles (2.5, 1 and 0.4 µm particle sizes).