Characteristics of Basepaper from Bamboo Pulps for Air Filter Application

As air pollution issues such as fine dust particles become increasingly severe, the consumption of air purification devices equipped with various types of filters has surged.Polypropylene (PP), commonly used as a filter material, is easy to process and exhibits excellent physical properties.However, its nonbiodegradable nature makes recycling difficult, leading to secondary environmental pollution during landfills or incineration.To address this issue, this study fabricated high-basis-weight filter basepaper by mixing bamboo pulp produced via organosolv pulping with low melting point polyester (LMPET), polyethylene (PE)/polypropylene (PP) fibers, and activated carbon fibers using a wet-laid process on a pilot-scale paper machine.Analysis of the filter efficiency depending on the mixing ratio and basis weight revealed that the bamboo-based basepaper achieved up to 6% higher dust particle filtration efficiency for the 3.0-5.0m range and exhibited 40-50% lower differential pressure compared to PET Spunbond, commonly used as a filter substrate.Furthermore, the quality factor (QF), which comprehensively considers filtration efficiency and differential pressure, showed that bamboo-based basepaper achieved a value 2.3 times higher than PET Spunbond, demonstrating superior performance in air permeability and energy efficiency.These results indicate that environmentally friendly bamboo-based basepaper has the potential to reduce long-term operating costs and serve as an economical and sustainable carbon-neutral filter substrate, providing a viable alternative to conventional petroleum-based filter materials.