Biomass Recycled Air Filters - BioReFil

Purpose and goal:

The goal of this project was to verify if post-consumer textile waste could be recycled as air-filter media. Specific objectives were (i) lab-scale to semi pilot-scale production foamed materials, (ii) testing in real equipment, for ´high-fidelity´ testing under operational conditions, and (iii) connect with potential customers and other players in the value-chain. Overall, this project has achieved all the targeted goals.

Expected results and effects:

The foams prepared at a semi pilot-scale was tested under realistic operational conditions. This went well and the filter operated satisfactorily under realistic air-flow conditions. The particulate matter filtration efficiency was indicative of PM10.

This is significant because the foaming process was not optimized to obtain different cell-sizes. The main focus was on the in this project was the production process. By adjusting the foaming step, one can obtain finer cell-sizes that could potentially result in meeting PM2.5 criteria. Approach and implementation:

We obtained actual post-consumer textile materials from a partner. We developed a lab-scale protocol to pre-process the material, followed by foaming, dewatering and drying them into fibrous foams. This was upscaled to a semi pilot-scale foamed materials.

The foams were sent to the needs-owner, for testing under operational conditions. The particulate matter filtration efficiency was also evaluated. Finally, the results were discussed with several potential end-users and other players in the value chain.