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New Insights into Indoor Air Quality in Sustainable Buildings

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1177

Special Issue Editor

School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Interests: indoor air quality; air cleaning; ventilation engineering; air conditioning; building technology; energy saving
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

People spend 80 to 90% of their time indoors, and indoor air quality directly affects people’s health and comfort. With the development of technology and people's awareness of the environment, we must start to see indoor air quality in a new light. Indoor air quality is not only the control of harmful gases and particulate pollution, it also the concerns on the influence of indoor pollutants on people’s health. Other new indoor pollutants and odors should be also paid attention to. There is also a close relationship between the built environment and outdoor air, the urban environment and global climate change. Analyzing the correlation between indoor air quality and the outdoor environment is the key to creating high-quality indoor air. Indoor air quality is not significantly improved without modern technology, such as artificial intelligence, air purification, ventilation design, etc. An important direction of sustainable architecture is incorporating indoor air quality into the whole process of building design. We can only achieve a healthy and comfortable indoor environment when the air quality of the built environment is comprehensively evaluated and managed. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to explore new perspectives on indoor air quality in sustainable buildings to promote paying attention to indoor environmental quality, providing innovative approaches and best practices for improving this.

Potential topics for this Special Issue include, but will not be limited to, the following topics:

  • New findings on indoor pollutants;
  • The indoor environment and people’s health;
  • Pollution source control;
  • New technologies for air cleaning;
  • New technologies for ventilation;
  • Smart technology for air quality;
  • Healthy building materials and interior decoration.

Yours faithfully, 

Dr. Ying Sheng
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • indoor air quality
  • pollution source control
  • indoor exposure
  • air cleaning
  • ventilation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5512 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Modeling and Analysis of Energy Recovery Efficiency and Influencing Factors of Energy Recovery Ventilators Under Dynamic Thermal Environments
by Huanyu Wang, Jinzhe Nie, Ying Sheng, Hanlong Li, Wen Zhang and Honghao Huang
Sustainability 2025, 17(10), 4509; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17104509 - 15 May 2025
Viewed by 158
Abstract
Energy recovery ventilators are essential for reducing building energy consumption, with the dynamic variation in their efficiency being a significant area of current research. To quickly analyze the parameters affecting the dynamic changes in energy recovery efficiency, this study develops a mathematical model [...] Read more.
Energy recovery ventilators are essential for reducing building energy consumption, with the dynamic variation in their efficiency being a significant area of current research. To quickly analyze the parameters affecting the dynamic changes in energy recovery efficiency, this study develops a mathematical model for heat and moisture transfer. The model was validated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental data. The validation results showed that the discrepancies between the model’s sensible heat and enthalpy efficiencies and the experimental data were approximately 4%, while the error range for sensible heat efficiency compared to CFD simulations was between 3% and 7%. This model was used to evaluate various factors affecting energy recovery efficiency. The findings show that outdoor temperature and relative humidity have little effect on sensible heat efficiency, whereas latent heat efficiency increases with rising outdoor temperature and humidity. Both sensible and latent heat efficiency improve as airflow decreases, with latent heat efficiency being more sensitive to changes in airflow. Additionally, due to the very thin heat exchanger membrane, the mass diffusion coefficient has a more significant effect on efficiency than the thermal conductivity coefficient. In conclusion, energy recovery efficiency is dynamic, and the proposed model provides rapid predictions of how influencing factors affect the efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Indoor Air Quality in Sustainable Buildings)
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14 pages, 2486 KiB  
Article
Concentrations and Source Apportionment of Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in Aircraft Cabins
by Xinyue Dong, Yihui Yin, Jingjing Pei and Meinan Qu
Sustainability 2025, 17(3), 909; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17030909 - 23 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 712
Abstract
The aircraft cabin provides a unique indoor environment compared to other building environments. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) is widely found in cabins and has clear adverse health impacts. This study investigated the PCE pollution characteristics in 56 aircraft cabins using on-flight Tenax-TA tube sampling and [...] Read more.
The aircraft cabin provides a unique indoor environment compared to other building environments. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) is widely found in cabins and has clear adverse health impacts. This study investigated the PCE pollution characteristics in 56 aircraft cabins using on-flight Tenax-TA tube sampling and GC-MS analysis. PCE was detected at a high rate of 79% in sampled flights, indicating widespread contamination within the cabins. The mean concentration of PCE was 10.12 μg/m3, exceeding the 2.06 μg/m3 observed in residences in a previous study. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was used to identify potential sources of PCE in cabins. Six categories of sources were determined, including in-cabin cleaning products, aircraft cleaning/maintenance, cabin interior material, aircraft and vehicle exhaust, non-fuel oil and ozone-associated chemical reactions. The biggest PCE source in cabins was attributed to in-cabin cleaning products (45.30%), followed by cabin interior materials (24.90%), and aircraft cleaning/maintenance (19.82%). The findings of this study are beneficial to improving aircraft cabin air quality, reducing harmful pollutant exposure for cabin crew and passengers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Indoor Air Quality in Sustainable Buildings)
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