Purification Effects of Golden Pothos and Peace Lily for Indoor Air-Pollutants and its Application to a Real Environment

Plant has the capability to remediate the earth environment. Especially, it has high purification capability for air-pollution. In this paper, the capabilities of golden pothos and peace lily were examined. The subjects were planted in a plant pot. In the experiment, these subjects were installed in an experimental chamber of 300 liters respectively and the purification characteristics were monitored by a tin oxide gas sensor. The responding characteristic of the sensor, which means a plant purification capability, keeps the first order system which is used in the automatic control. Therefore, the time constant is employed to evaluate the plant capability. The capabilities of golden pothos and peace lily for formaldehyde, toluene and xylene were nearly constant even if the concentrations were changed. The capability of golden pothos for formaldehyde was 1.5 times higher than the one of peace lily. The capability of peace lily for toluene was 1.2 times as high as the one of golden pothos. The capabilities of golden pothos and peace lily for xylene were almost equal. It was also understood that the purification capability became lower as the molecular weight of the pollutant was larger. Plants were also set in a real environment. Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) and odors were measured to examine purification effect of plants. As for the results, removal rate for TVOC was 74% and the one for odor was 68%. It was confirmed that plants also had high purification capability in the real environment.