Reducing CO2 level in the indoor urban built environment: Analysing indoor plants under different light levels

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted that people spend most of their time indoors, making indoor air quality a critical concern. Indoor air pollution can have detrimental effects on human health, and the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in indoor environments is a crucial factor that needs to be monitored and controlled. Plants have been recognized globally as environmentally friendly and natural air purification mechanisms. Therefore, the feasibility of using indoor plants as an indoor air pollution mitigation measure was investigated in this study. While several studies have been conducted in temperate regions, only a few have focused on tropical climates. Therefore, this research aims to fill this gap by assessing the capacity of selected indoor plant species popular in Sri Lanka to reduce CO2 levels in indoor environments under varying lighting. Six plant species, including Chlorophytum comosum, Spathiphyllum blandum, Philodendron hederaceum, Sansevieria trifasciata, Aglaonema commutatum, and Dracaena fragrans, were evaluated for their ability to remove CO2 from indoor environments. The study found that Spathiphyllum blandum was the most efficient species in CO2 assimilation rate under all four lighting levels. Additionally, the study revealed that CO2 assimilation rates increase with higher light intensity. The findings suggest that certain indoor plant species can effectively mitigate indoor air pollution and that supplementary lighting can improve their CO2 removal efficiency. This research is significant because it provides insight into the potential use of indoor plants in tropical climates as a sustainable and natural way of improving indoor air quality.