March 2023 Member News

Dissertation Defense

Brian Considine, Trinity College Dublin
Title of Dissertation: An Investigation into the Aspiration Efficiency of Building Ventilation System Inlets for Reducing Energy Consumption in Air Filtration Systems
Degree: PhD in Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering
Funding: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)

Sarah Lima Paralovo, Ghent University, VITO
Title of Dissertation: Adapting the Passive Tracer Gas Test Technique to Current Challenges for Simultaneous Measurement of Ventilation Rates and Indoor Air Quality Indicators
Degree: Doctor in Engineering

Publications

Raphael Brun, Saint-Gobain Research Paris
In February 2023, a paper has been published in the journal "Building and Environement", dedicated to the description of the behavior of lime-cement-plaster exposed to indoor level of formaldehyde on long-term. It was evidenced that beyond adsorption, formaldehyde is decomposed into formate ions and methanol following a Cannizzaro-like mechanism, attributed to the basic character of the cementitious matrix.
This work is part of a fruitful collaboration between an academic lab, the CERI EE of IMT Nord Europe (contact: Frédéric Thévenet, Marie Verriele-Duncianu), and a French company of the building sector, Saint-Gobain (contact: Raphaël Brun, Marion Chenal, Arnaud Soisson, Wolfram Maier), which has led to the first author's PhD (Raphaël Brun, defended in September 2022).

Title : Uptake and reactivity of formaldehyde on lime-cement-plaster under typical indoor air conditions

Authors: Raphaël Brun a b, Marie Verriele a, Manolis N. Romanias a, Marion Chenal b, Arnaud Soisson b, Wolfram Maier c, Frédéric Thevenet a
a: IMT Nord Europe, Université de Lille, CERI EE, F-59000, Lille, France
b: Saint-Gobain Research, Paris, France
c: Saint-Gobain Weber, Merdingen, Germany

Journal: Building and Environment 229 (2023)

Paul Grahovac
Wrote an article entitled Building Science Helps Defeat Coronavirus for the October 2020 issue of INTERFACE The Technical Journal of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants. The gist of it is: Aerosolized virus particles are widely believed to be the primary means of viral disease transmission. Including higher amounts of outdoor air in the HVAC distribution in accordance with ASHRAE 62.1 is associated with dilution and removal of aerosolized virus particles and reduction in transmission of disease. Also, it is well-recognized that cognitive performance of all occupant types is greatly improved by higher levels of outdoor air. Higher quotients of outdoor air mean higher conditioning costs. However, achieving a high degree of airtightness in the building envelope in new construction and retrofits reduces energy costs, and it greatly enhances flow control to facilitate reduction of disease transmission.

Aonghus McNabola, Trinity College Dublin
New article published on the impact of street level particulate emissions on the energy performance of roof level building ventilation systems. Paper examines the impact of ventilation intake location on filter loading rates and subsequent energy use.

Considine B, Gallagher J, Kumar P, McNabola A., The impact of street level particulate emissions on the energy performance of roof level building ventilation systems, Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics, 233, (105310), 2023, p1-13

Runa T. Hellwig, Aalborg University, DK, CREATE Human Building Interaction
The Technical Report "Guidelines for low energy building design based on the adaptive thermal comfort concept" of the Interantional Energy Agency's (IEA) EBC Annex 69: Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings. " was published as one major Outcome of Annex 69. The main achievement is the development of a DESIGN PROCESS FOR ADAPTIVE OPPORTUNITIES for people in buildings.
Content:
i) Section 2 summarises the three adaptive comfort principles. It follows with a discussion on the effectiveness of the adaptive principles and on the order of activation of adaptive responses.
ii) Section 3 describes the benefits from applying the adaptive principles in buildings
iii) Section 4 presents the developed framework for adopting the adaptive comfort principles in design and operation of buildings, especially a DESIGN PROCESS FOR ADAPTIVE OPPORTUNITIES considerations and recommendations for adopting adaptive comfort in conditioned buildings, and ways to integrate the use of the adaptive principles in permanently or long-season conditioned spaces.
The report is opan access.

Hellwig, R. T., Teli, D., Schweiker, M., Mora, R., Choi, J-H., Rawal, R., Lee, M. C. J., Wang, Z., & Al-Atrash, F. (2022). Guidelines for low energy building design based on the adaptive thermal comfort concept - Technical report: IEA EBC Annex 69: Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings. Aalborg Universitet, Department of Architecture Design and Media Technology.

Runa T. Hellwig, Aalborg University, DK, CREATE Human Building Interaction
Quality assurance in Indoor Environment Research and Standardization

Recently, several publications on quality assurance were published. High standard Indoor Environment study design, reporting and transfer into standards and guideline forms one basis to improve people’s everyday life in indoor spaces.

A team of authors led by Giorgia Chinazzo, developed quality criteria and guidelines to conduct and report future multi-domain studies to increase their quality and enable their meta-analysis. As part of their research, they analyzed more than 100 publications about studies investigating how people experience different combinations of changed indoor environmental conditions, e.g. several temperature conditions combined with several acoustic/noise, light or air quality conditions. They found that there is a need for a more consistent way of conducting and reporting such studies. Their quality criteria can serve as quality assurance in the research process for studies on people's experience of the indoor environmental conditions in laboratory and in field studies.

The publication is freely downloadable until 31 July 2023:

Chinazzo, G., Andersen, R. K., Azar, E., Barthelmes, V. M., Becchio, C., Belussi, L., Berger, C., Carlucci, S., Corgnati, S. P., Crosby, S., Danza, L., de Castro, L., Favero, M., Gauthier, S., Hellwig, R. T., Jin, Q., Kim, J., Khanie, M. S., Khovalyg, D., ... Wei, S. (2022). Quality criteria for multi-domain studies in the indoor environment: critical review towards research guidelines and recommendations. Building and Environment, 226, [109719].

Two teams of authors led by Christiane Berger and Ardeshir Mahdavi investigated the evidentary basis for IEQ standards and identified certain issues with the transparency of the chain of evidence from the results of technical literature and standard-based IEQ recommendations. The publications provide positive examples and recommendations for the development of future transparent and evidence-based IEQ standards and guidelines.

The publications are open access:

Berger, C., Mahdavi, A., Azar, E., Bandurski, K., Bourikas, L., Harputlugil, T., Hellwig, R. T., Rupp, R. F., & Schweiker, M. (2022). Reflections on the Evidentiary Basis of Indoor Air Quality Standards. Energies, 15(20), [7727]. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15207727

Berger, C., Mahdavi, A., Ampatzi, E., Crosby, S., Hellwig, R. T., Khovalyg, D., Pisello, A. L., Roetzel, A., Rysanek, A., & Vellei, M. (2023). Thermal conditions in indoor environments: Exploring the reasoning behind standard-based recommendations. Energies, 16(4), [1587].

Johan Mattsson, cTrap Ltd.
Achieving a healthy indoor environment by using an emmisions barrier to stop the spread of chemicals from a building into the indoor air. An emissions barrier was used in a premises due to complaints about the indoor air quality (IAQ) as a result of emissions from the building in question. The emissions comprised chlorophenols/chloroanisoles and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from treated wood and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mainly 2-ethylhexanol, from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flooring and the glue used to paste the flooring onto a concrete slab. Attaching the barrier at the surfaces from where the emissions were spread (floor, walls, ceilings) resulted in a fresh and odour-free indoor air. We conclude that using an emissions barrier in buildings made unhealthy by moisture is an efficient way of restoring pleasant and healthy indoor air

Minh-Tien Tran, CSTB (Scientific and Technical Centre for Building)
Mansouri, A., Wei, W., Alessandrini, J., Mandin, C., Blondeau, P., 2022. Impact of Climate Change on Indoor Air Quality: A Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19, 15616.

Aya Mansouri, CSTB (Scientific and Technical Centre for Building)
Tran, M.T., Wei, W., Dassonville, C., Martinsons, C., Ducruet, P., Mandin, C., Héquet, V., Wargocki, P., 2023. Review of Parameters Measured to Characterize Classrooms’ Indoor Environmental Quality. Buildings 13, 433.

Recognition, Awards, Positions and Promotions

Paul Grahovac: Named as one of three consultants to the ASHRAE SPC 241 committee of approximately 50 experts tasked with developing the Standard to Address Mitigation of Airborne Infection Transmission on an expediated six-month schedule in response to communication from the Whitehouse.

Runa T. Hellwig, Aalborg University, DK, CREATE, Human Building Interaction: 2022 Best Paper Award from Building Environment goes to a team of authors led by Giorgia Chinazzo developed quality criteria and guidelines to conduct and report future multi-domain studies to increase their quality and enable their meta-analysis.

Chinazzo, G., Andersen, R. K., Azar, E., Barthelmes, V. M., Becchio, C., Belussi, L., Berger, C., Carlucci, S., Corgnati, S. P., Crosby, S., Danza, L., de Castro, L., Favero, M., Gauthier, S., Hellwig, R. T., Jin, Q., Kim, J., Khanie, M. S., Khovalyg, D., ... Wei, S. (2022). Quality criteria for multi-domain studies in the indoor environment: critical review towards research guidelines and recommendations. Building and Environment, 226, [109719]. The paper is freely downloadeble untiel 31 July 2023.

Achievements

Janice Green, International Commission on Occupational Health
FREE HEALTHCARE FOR CHILDREN IN THE FLU SEASON A report from the Ministry of Health & Wellness in Jamaica states that every year Influenza activity in Jamaica often begins to increase in October to November, peaks between December to March, and can lasts as late as May. This period is called the “flu season”. The Bustamante Children’s Hospital (Children’s Hospital), is Jamaica’s Hospital for Children. It is the only paediatric hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean. It was a former British Military Hospital that was transformed into a children's hospital in 1962. It provides free healthcare for children. As reported by our Ministry of Health and Wellness, during the yearly influenza season, paediatric cases at Bustamante Children’s Hospital increases significantly, often time, causing a strain on the medical facility.

Scientists have proven that children, between 6 months and 5 years old, are prone to get very ill from the flu than other age groups. This is because their immune systems are not yet fully developed as in older children. To alleviate overcrowding at the Bustamante Hospital for Children during the flu season, in the year 2022, the Ministry of Health and Wellness announced that children 12 years old and younger can now receive free healthcare at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

The University Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica, is the first teaching hospital in the region. It is an internationally recognized academic institution with 579 beds. The clinical training of Registered Nurses at this hospital, commenced on January 4, 1949.
Free healthcare for children at hospitals is important. This provision helps to preserve the lives of children, and ensures accessibility to those among us who may not have the financial resources to afford proper healthcare for their children.

Janice Green, CSP
ICOH, National Secretary for Jamaica

Stuart Sheldon, Air-Clenz
Air-Clenz™ Chief Scientific Officer, Anita T. Broach, PhD, and the team have made some waves in the field of personalized air purification. They attended the National Summit on Improving Indoor Air Quality in September ‘22 and the White House Summit on Indoor Air Quality in October ‘22. They just announced their project to purify the air in buses and trains in Canada, after successful completion of several CFD simulation studies of their exhaled air capturing and purifying unit integrated in the back of the passenger seats (to be published).

Michalis Michaelides, Cyprus University of Technology
We are pleased to announce that CUT is currently participating in the SIEQUA-CERT project. The SIEQUA-CERT (Real-time monitoring and actionable decision support for Sustainable Indoor Environment Quality Certification) project has been funded by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation under the CO-DEVELOP programme.

There is currently significant lack of infrastructure and active solutions for monitoring the Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) and generating actionable insights in terms of the impact on occupants' health. The SIEQUA-CERT project aims to develop real-time IEQ health-impact metrics per building zone and an Indoor Environment and Health Awareness decision support system with measurable added value to support stakeholders in high occupancy public and private buildings.

This will result in automated suggestions for potential improvements within buildings which can enable increased employees’ performance & satisfaction, reduced risk of transmission and viability of airborne viruses (e.g., SARS-CoV-2), reduced heating/cooling costs and overall optimization of resources usage.

The project started on January 1st, 2023 with a 24 months duration. It's a collaboration between PHOEBE, Lelantus Innovations Ltd, the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence of the University of Cyprus, the Cyprus University of Technology (Department of EECEI & Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health) and Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative.

Dusan Licina, EPFL
An international team led by principal investigator Dusan Licina, Shen Yang, Marouane Merizak and Meixia Zhang at EPFL, together with collaborators from Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Nijing Wang, Tatjana Mueller and Jonathan Williams), Danish Technical University (Gabriel Bekö and Pawel Wargocki), Finnish institute for Health and Welfare (Martin Täubel) and Duke University (Yan Lin and Jim Zhang) is pursing a project funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation titled: "Constituents of Human Particle, Microbial and Chemical Emissions, Dispersal Mechanisms and Exposures in Indoor Environments". The objectives of this project are to (i) characterize particles, microbes and volatile organic compounds emitted from humans and their transformations in indoor air under various conditions (air change rate, physical activity, and induced stress) and to (ii) examine the effect of ozone exposure on malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, a biomarker of lipid peroxidation. An ongoing data analysis will yield a comprehensive dataset on: 1) indoor air quality that isolates the emissions from people and evaluates the importance of various personal and environmental factors in these emissions, 2) dynamics and fates of human-associated air pollutants and consequent inhalation exposures; 3) improved understanding of how ozone exposures influence human oxidative stress.

Nabiha Ben Sedrine, Castros S.A.
The R&D project ANSWER or SustAiNable Safe WinERies was recently launched with the main objective to tackle important issues associated with the Wineries in Portugal, namely possible presence of pathogens such as viruses, bacterias, or fungi.

The objectives of this project are: the identification and mapping of microorganisms and their susceptibility to ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation, as well as develop autonomous robots for winery disinfection as innovative approach to reduce the use of chemicals.
This project is integrated in WP2 (Robotization, Dronetization and IoT) of the Agenda “Vine and Wine Portugal - Driving Sustainable Growth Through Smart Innovation” and supported by the PRR - Recovery and Resilience Plan and by the European NextGeneration EU Funds, within the scope of the Mobilizing Agendas for Reindustrialization.

The project “ANSWER" is coordinated by the 100-years-old Portuguese company Castros S.A.
The R&D Scientists from Castros S.A. and the Researchers from Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) will closely work together in the next 3 years in order to achieve the objectives of the project.

The ISIAQ community is constantly reaching new heights and celebrating milestones. We are excited to showcase professional updates and achievements from your friends and colleagues in the community. If you have an announcement to include in our next newsletter, please submit it here.