Researchers Install Air Filters In Denver Public Schools

DENVER, CO — Students in more than 20 Denver Public Schools returned Monday to classrooms with cleaner air after engineers installed a new generation of high-efficiency air filters in the buildings.

University of Colorado Boulder environmental engineers began in the summer installing hundreds of the filters, which were provided by Carrier's Healthy Buildings Program.

Mark Hernandez, an environmental engineering professor at CU Boulder, led the team of researchers. The group has been working to quantify how much the high-efficiency filters reduce airborne particle exposure in classrooms and allow students to learn in a safer environment during the coronavirus pandemic.

The filters use a novel cylindrical design that takes in air from all directions, making them higher flow than their older counterparts for the same footprint.

“There have been a lot of assumptions and modeling efforts out there, which is fine. But the fact of the matter is, in the field with children in the classroom, we have got to verify it,” Hernandez said.

“The biggest part of this research effort is verifying performance under actual field conditions.”

His research group has spent years surveying ventilation rates in schools, and found that some have far healthier air quality than others.

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“We began by focusing on the older infrastructure, as well as those areas with increased asthma occurrence. Now we're trying to bring effective ventilation rates up and get equity across the district’s buildings,” Hernandez said.

“We're trying to level the playing field with respect to educational environment where the kids spend most of their time. So that's been a really good thing.”

Intel and Colorado’s Ryan Innovation Group also helped to fund the installation of the filters.