VOC level control by ventilation improvement of Flexography printing room using CFD modeling

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique, the dispersion contours and the exposure rate of Flexographic printing workers to VOCs in a printing department is evaluated. Firstly, VOCs distribution is determined in the printing room due to the existing ventilation system. Through next steps, 4 scenarios for lowering VOCs concentration and its exposure rate to workers are analyzed. Concentration distributions of ethylene glycol (MEG) as a representative of VOCs are determined for 4 scenarios. The results show that, regarding the existing ventilation, the concentration of MEG at the breathing height is 1×10-5 mg/m3 and it is higher than the standard permissible level. Finally, the findings of this study lead to lowered VOCs concentrations to 13.87×10-9 mg/m3 via changing the ventilation system for the Flexography Printing Room.