AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Thermal Inactivation of Bioaerosol during Filtration
HSING-WANG LI, Elizabeth Gomez, Brian Damit, Chang-Yu Wu, University of Florida
Abstract Number: 228 Working Group: The Indoor Microbiome
Abstract The spread of airborne pathogens as well as the intentional release of biological agents for terrorism in recent years have raised the public’s concerns about bioaerosol and the urge for its effective control. Filtration is the most common method for removing aerosol; however, an appropriate treatment for the filter that has collected microorganisms is critical to preventing reaerosolization and formite transmission.The objective of this study was to develop a novel technology to estimate inactivation efficiency of bioaerosol collected on filter. In this study, joule heating was used to inactivate the collected microorganisms.
The activated carbon filter was challenged with Escherichia coli (E. coli), a gram negative bacterium with a primary particle size around 0.8 μm, in a parallel filtration system. Biosamplers were used downstream to collect the sample, and the filter was tested at ~22oC and ~50% relative humidity. Experimental results showed that the average surface temperatures on the filter measured by pyrometer reached around 31, 63, and 104oC at 1, 3 and 4V, respectively. The bioaerosol removal efficiency of activated carbon filter only and heated activated carbon filter were 90.0% and 92.0%, respectively. In addition, the inactivation efficiency on the filter surface due only to heating was 99.7%. The results demonstrate that the heated filter is safer for handling.