Search Results (7)

Traditional single-scale indoor air quality (IAQ) evaluation methods often fail to meet the demands of modern, personalized kitchens. To address this limitation, we propose a comprehensive IAQ index, integrating experimental data and simulation results. The index incorporates four key IAQ auxiliary evaluation indicators: air distribution performance index (ADPI), predicted mean vote (PMV), cooking oil fume particulates (COFP), and CO₂ concentration. We developed a kitchen model and used the comprehensive IAQ index to benchmark simulation results against experimental tests. Optimal kitchen air quality occurred at a supply air angle of 90° and airflow velocity of 2.268 m³/min, reducing air pollution impact by 29.50%. This configuration enhanced thermal comfort while reducing secondary COFP accumulation in the breathing zone by 22%. The 29.50% Q-index reduction corresponded to a 24% decrease in peak CO₂ exposure (638 ppm, clean-air level) and 22% lower COFP in breathing zones, mitigating health risks. Optimized airflow (2.268 m³/min) avoided excessive ventilation, reducing energy waste and achieving balanced IAQ-energy efficiency. Full article

The cooking oil fume particulate (COFP) produced by indoor cooking can harm human health seriously, and therefore requires urgent monitoring and optimization. In this paper, the kitchen cooking simulation process was established by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on the fluid dynamics theory. Combined with the user defined function (UDF), the spatial and temporal distributions of COFP and carbon dioxide (CO₂) during the cooking process were simulated and analyzed, respectively. Both simulation results were verified using experimental data. Moreover, this paper introduces a COFP concentration correlation function that utilizes the spatiotemporal correlation between COFP and CO₂ concentrations during the cooking process. The function is based on the spatiotemporal distribution of CO₂ concentration. By comparing it with traditional calculations, the proposed function is shown to achieve a remarkable 70% improvement in efficiency and maintain an accuracy rate exceeding 90%. This enables the rapid analysis and control of COFP concentration through monitoring and analyzing CO₂ levels in the kitchen. Full article

A kitchen is an important part of a residence, and air quality in kitchens is a major factor affecting residents’ health and performance. Its influence is especially more evident in kitchens with typical Chinese cooking. Thus, it is important to understand distribution characteristics of oil fume particles in Chinese kitchens, and research on typical Chinese kitchen environments and movement characteristics of soot particles should be emphasized. Therefore, to understand the air pollution in kitchen environments, a full-scale experimental platform was built based on common Chinese-style residential kitchens to monitor the soot particles, explore the space–time distribution characteristics of the soot particles, and analyze the variation characteristics and distribution laws of number concentration (NC) and mass concentration (MC). The results indicated that NC_0.3μm value fluctuated slightly during the whole cooking process, while NC_{0.3μm~0.5μm} and NC_{0.5μm~1.0μm} fluctuated sharply. During the peak period, NC_{0.3μm~0.5μm} and NC_{0.5μm~1.0μm} were significantly higher than those at the beginning and end of cooking (p < 0.05), and there was no significant difference between values of NC_{0.3μm~0.5μm} and NC_{0.5μm~1.0μm} at the beginning and end of cooking (p > 0.05 for both). NC_0.3μm and NC_{0.3μm~0.5μm} were significantly different between each position (p < 0.05 for all). There were also significant differences in NC_0.3μm between pure meat dishes, pure vegetable dishes, and mixed dishes (p < 0.001). The proportion of cooking meat will significantly affect the composition and concentration of lampblack particles. Type of dishes is an important influencing factor for the emission rates of particulate pollutants. Small-sized lampblack particles were more likely to diffuse to the surroundings and affected the air quality of the whole room. Particulate matter in the kitchen space during the frying process is more harmful to the health of personnel. Full article

Cooking oil fumes are full of dangerous chemicals that are bad for human health. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cooking oil fumes are not only emitted in the form of gas but may also accumulate with other substances in oil fumes and form particulate matter emitted into the atmosphere. Different forms of VOCs can enter different regions of the human body and have varying effects on health. This paper investigated the VOC emission types found in some cooking fumes. The findings demonstrate that organic contaminants from edible oils were released as gas and particle matter, with gas being the predominant component. The fraction of gaseous VOCs steadily declined as oil temperature rose, whereas the proportion of VOCs released as particulate matter gradually rose. It is possible to assume that the increase in oil fume with temperature was caused by the original oil’s components volatilizing more frequently under the influence of vapor pressure and that chemical reactions were not the primary cause of oil fume creation. Full article

The stir-frying process in Chinese cooking has produced serious emissions of oily particles, which are an important source of urban air pollution. In particular, the complex composition of fine particulate may pose a threat to human respiratory and immune systems. However, current filtration methods for oily particulate fumes have low filtration efficiency, high resistance, and high equipment costs. In polypropylene (PP) electret filters, efficiency rapidly decreases and pressure drop (wind resistance) sharply increases after the adsorption of oily particles, due to the oleophilic properties of the PP fibre. We addressed this issue of filter performance degradation by fabricating a sodium perfluorooctanoate (SPFO) oleophobic coating on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibre membranes for oily particle filtration. The SPFO coating showed a promising oleophobic effect even at low concentrations, which suggests it has oleophobic properties for different oil types and can be modified for different substrates. This fabricated oleophobic coating is thermostable and the oleophobic effect is unaffected by temperatures from 0 to 100 °C. By modifying the SPFO coating on the PVDF membrane, a high filtration efficiency (89.43%) and low wind resistance (69 Pa) was achieved without oil adhesion, so the proposed coating can be applied in the filtration and purification of oily fine particles and offers a potential strategy for preventing atmospheric oil pollution. Full article

Many studies have reported various cardiovascular autonomic responses to ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution, but few have reported such responses to occupational PM exposures. Even fewer have demonstrated a relationship between PM pollution and oxidative stress in humans. This panel study evaluates the association between occupational exposure to PM in cooking oil fumes (COFs), and changes in both heart rate variability (HRV) and oxidative stress responses in 54 male Chinese cooks. Linear mixed-effects regression models were adopted to estimate the strength of the association between PM and HRV. Participants’ pre- and post-workshift urine samples were analyzed for 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Exposure to PM in COFs from 15 min to 2 h were associated with a decrease in HRV and an increase in heart rate among cooks. The urinary 8-OHdG levels of cooks were significantly elevated after workshift exposure to COFs. The levels of PM_2.5, PM_1.0, and particulate benzo(a)pyrene in COFs were all positively correlated with cross-workshift urinary 8-OHdG levels. Furthermore, the levels of benzo(a)pyrene in COFs were positively correlated with cross-workshift urinary MDA levels. The effects of COFs on HRV were independent of cross-workshift urinary 8-OHdG levels. Exposure to COFs leads to disturbed autonomic function and an increased risk of oxidative DNA injury among cooks in Chinese restaurants. Full article

Fuel combustion will release harmful gases such as $\mathrm{CO}$ , ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ , ${\mathrm{SO}}_2$ , ${\mathrm{and}\mathrm{NO}}_{\mathrm{x}}$ during cooking, and cooking oil fumes also contain acids, aldehydes, and other harmful particulate matters. Clinical diagnosis confirmed that some tiny particulate matters in oil fumes can induce many kinds of cancer. High-rise buildings of multi-dwelling units have been widely used as residential buildings with increasing worldwide population, especially in China. Therefore, air pollution in kitchens of high-rise residential buildings is attracting more and more attention in academic circles and engineering fields, especially the exhaust effectiveness and influencing factors of cooker hoods. This study focused on key influence factors of exhaust effectiveness such as the centralized flue system of high-rise residential buildings, the operating rate, the floor, the exhaust volume, and the vent opening. Commercial software Fluent was adopted to build the calculation model of cooker hoods for high-rise buildings. The temperature distribution, concentration distribution, and main escape path of oil fumes were analyzed and compared with experimental measurements. The results showed that the side and the front edge of the cooker hood close to the cooker are the main escape paths of oil fumes; the maximum escape concentrations of oil fumes are 0.247 mg/m³ and 0.265 mg/m³, respectively, under the condition of ventilation and non-ventilation; the error is only 5.0% and 11.7% compared with the experimental results. This paper is valuable for the improvement of air quality in kitchens in high-rise residential buildings, and the design and installation of cooker hoods. Full article