{"id":1235,"date":"2016-08-01T19:28:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T19:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/biowall\/?page_id=1235"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:34:41","slug":"lab-work","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/biowall\/lab-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Research<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The research combines three different areas into one project: Mechanical Engineering, Horticulture and Biochemistry. It was the combination of perspectives that allowed the Biowall to come to life.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

The purpose of this research was to develop a pre-commercialization version of the Biowall that was easier to maintain, cheaper to operate, and had better air cleaning characteristics.\u00a0The Biowall research analyzed the VOCs removal capacity with regards to the filtration potential, growth media content and plant health.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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An environmental chamber was used to make precise measurements of air temperature, air humidity, VOC content and energy consumption.\u00a0 Various lighting levels, plant species and watering strategies were tested to optimize Biowall performance.<\/p>\n

By injecting a known amount of a single VOC and then continuously monitoring its decay inside the environmental chamber, researchers computed the air cleaning potential. This test was done twice, once with the presence of the Biowall and once without the growth media andThe difference between the two tests evaluated the capacity of the Biowall to eliminate toluene, a common type of VOC.<\/p>\n

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A Biowall test apparatus was designed and used for evaluating growth media, watering techniques, and plant varieties in an environmental chamber.<\/p>\n

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The VOC removal capacity experiment took into consideration three possible sources of contaminant removal:<\/p>\n