What we do
Engineers in air quality focus on minimizing air emissions from industrial facilities, modeling air pollutant transport, and quantifing chemical fate and concentrations in our everyday indoor environments. Specifically HSU Air Quality Engineers investigate:
- Ozone interactions with everyday materials when used as an odor remover or disinfectant
- Particle emissions from kerosene lamps that are used indoors for lighting in developing countries
- Elevated particle concentrations in towns where people are switching to wood-based heating methods
Outdoor air pollution sources can negatively impact health. However, sources of indoor air pollution can have larger negative impact on health.
Classes
All ERE students are required to take Transport Phenomena (ENGR 416) which provides the foundation for indoor and outdoor air quality modeling. In addition, students can take Air Quality Engineering (ENGR 431) as a major elective.
Facilities
Indoor Air Quality Laboratory
The engineering department has equipment to monitor temperature, relativy humidity, ozone concentrations. An experimental setup can be used to quantify ozone reactions with building materials. In addition, particle monitors are used to count particles in both the submicron and micron size classes.
Research
Americans spend 95% of their time indoors. ERE faculty and students are actively involved in investigating the improvement of indoor air quality. The following page provides a list of recent publications on indoor air quality by department faculty.