Reducing air pollutants in a kitchen environment

Abstract

Excessive CO2 from a gas stove could cause sick building syndrome. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the distribution and concentration of the CO2 in a kitchen area. The primary goal of this research is to reduce the pollutants in the kitchen environment by examining the effects of airflow velocity and the use of the range hood on the concentration of CO2 and CO gases. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was employed and a grid independent test (GIT) that is providing an accurate solution was used to determine the number of elements. The model was then validated by comparing its result with the experimental data obtained from the literature. The shear stress transport (SST) k-φ model was chosen in the study and it was then simulated considering four cases with different conditions. The best result was then compared with the worst. By changing the conditions of a window, the pollution level can be reduced by 9.35% which was relatively ineffective compared to increasing the velocity of the range hood. By changing the hood’s velocity from 1.88 m/s to 5.22 m/s, the concentration of CO2 can be reduced by 17.09%. Moreover, the installation of a range hood can help the room decreased the CO2 level by 57.33% if compared to the case without the hood. Hence, it can be concluded that the velocity of the range hood is a parameter that is more significant than the conditions of the window. Besides, by changing the velocity of the range hood from the lowest to highest speed, the average concentration of CO in the cooking area has been reduced by 4.56%, while the level of CO in the adjacent room reduced by 8.84%.