10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
SenseNet Bioaerosol Collector Development
DAVID ALBURTY, Zachary Packingham, Andrew Page, Steven Graham, Ann Packingham, InnovaPrep LLC
Abstract Number: 545 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract DHS has begun development of an indoor systems approach to a high-performing but low-cost indoor environmental monitoring for bioaerosol threats. The intent is to overcome cost barriers to the deployment of a widespread commercial and government network of monitoring devices. These systems will provide early warning for critical infrastructure such as convention centers, office buildings, mass transit centers, sports venues and other areas. The system development approach considers the technical challenges of sensor placement through a modeling approach, and uses a triggered aerosol collector. The collector operates at 200 LPM and the sample is captured on a dry electret filter tape. A prototype system was developed and a demonstration test was conducted using Barcode Btk endospores. Following capture, the spores are eluted from the filter by a carbonated surfactant buffer solution termed Wet Foam Elution™. The expanded wet foam efficiently elutes particles from the filter and then quickly collapses into two mL of flat liquid. The collector system pulls a measured quantity of sample fluid from 35 μL to one mL from the sample and transfers it through a standard Luer lock interface to a PCR identifier that is networked to the overall system for an alarm decision and response. The design and development of the automated low cost per sample bioaerosol collector and the technical demonstration aerosol chamber testing will be presented.