4 . Plants Objective and Impact
4.1 . Air Cleaning Characters The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) believe that plants could spur the indoor air . This organization had discovered that house ferns may lower the Volatile Organic Compounds ( VOCs ) level inside a space effectively , while the Clean Air Council ( CAC ) and Wolverton Environmental Services ( WES ) run an experiment and examine those elements , which can prove that they eliminate toxics ( NASA , 2011 ).
Mechanism This creature can utilize a portion of harmful partials in the medium ( Kobayashi et al 2009 ). As shown in Figure 1 , the previous process outcome is the plant energy source , while particles are determent by biological operation , to feed the plant some hydrous settlement will happen , and the plant root as well plays a role in transaction , which will produce clear air .
Figure 1 : VOCs treatments in the plant
Photosynthesis is the main transformation method in the plant nurturing , while the leaves absorb the CO2 gases , the oxygen is released as a by-product during nighttime . Although all the capabilities of the plant , it may have some limitations ( Kobayashi et al . 2009 ), such as that the plant cannot be fully relied upon cleaning the air totally , whereas some ventilation and filters are needed to proceed towards the desired level , and using such solutions may lead to a rise in the humidity levels , which may be considered as both positive and negative according to the situation .
NASA ’ s Experiment The existence of human beings relies on their complex relationship with the planet they live in , and particularly , with the regenerative qualities of the earth ’ s ecosystem . In 1973 , during the observation of the air quality in the sky labs , NASA experts found that it contains about 107 VOCs due to the usage of artificial substances in building these units , when the gasses are cornered in a closed spot without refreshing the air , they cause sickness for the dwellers due to the unhealthy environment and the lack of the earth ’ s supportive ecosystem ( NASA 2011 ). Furthermore , the need to achieve high competence and better work efficiency , demands the tightness of the facility and this can lead to a short air circulation , which can increase the negative effect on the building users . Therefore , Wolverton introduced the use of plants as a natural life support system to enhance personal environment and to eliminate gasses while using the same materials and maintaining the energy efficiency ( NASA 2011 ). BioHome was a test conducted by NASA , which demonstrated the state of “ controlled ( or closed ) ecological life support system ( CELSS )”, where the design was well sealed using the same materials but the addition of
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