Role of fabrication parameters in enhancing cylindrical electret polypropylene fiber-based filters for air purification

Abstract

The growing demand for air filtration from aerosols and solid particles makes research on the development of filters and the influence of their production parameters on their efficiency essential. Electrostatic filters demonstrate high efficiency, utilizing ionization to attract and capture air pollutants on the filter material. This study focuses on cylindrical polypropylene fiber-based filters and examines the impact of production parameters on their efficiency in removing aerosols. The proposed filters proved to be extremely efficient, especially for aerosol particles of the 40–90 nm range. Key factors analyzed include filter wall thickness, cylinder rotation speed during formation, rolling pressure and spinneret diameter, which affect the structural characteristics of the filter, such as fiber diameter, fiber packing density and filter porosity. The results indicate substantial improvements in filtration performance through parameter optimization. Thus, increasing the rolling pressure from 0 to 25 kPa reduces the penetration value from 2.1% to 1.1%. Similarly, as the winding speed increases from 100 to 250 rpm, the penetration value decreases fivefold, from 1.13% to 0.23%. The influence of filtration parameters on filter efficiency was also investigated, and the dependences of particle penetration on air flow rate, corona discharge polarity and type of pollutant particles were determined. These findings highlight the potential for optimizing production conditions to enhance the performance of electrostatic air filters in various applications.