Capture and containment efficiency of the exhaust hood in a typical Chinese commercial kitchen with air curtain ventilation

In typical Chinese commercial kitchens, the large amount of heat and moisture that is generated must be removed. The ventilation and energy consumption rates can be huge. Middle and small scale commercial kitchens in China produce an exhaust airflow rate so large that without a reasonably effective ventilation system, the temperature and contaminant concentrations are far more than acceptable levels. To fulfil all the requirements of indoor air conditioning in an economical manner, a new air distribution pattern called air curtain ventilation (ACV) is presented in this study. To fully optimize the entire plan, a model to record efficiency values has been derived to estimate the influence of the ACV on the total efficiency of the commercial kitchen case-study. In this paper, a simple equation is demonstrated for the average contaminant level in the occupied zone. This could be a suitable platform for capture and containment (C&C) efficiency analysis. With air curtain ventilation system, the C&C efficiency can be as high as 81-86%.