Characteristics control of bioaerosol using thermal energy

Abstract

Bioaerosols are found everywhere in the indoor and the outdoor environments from either natural or industrial sources including building. Exposure to bioaerosols in the occupational environment is associated with a wide range of health effects with major public health impact, including infectious diseases, acute toxic effects, and, allergies as well as cancer. Strategies developed for protecting indoor environments from deliberately used aerosol agents require efficient air filtration and air sterilization systems. In recent, the heat treatment of indoor air using thermal energy has been considered as a safe, effective and environmental friendly method, which does not use ozone, ions or filter media. Thermal energy has long been considered a suitable and reliable method for controlling microorganisms. However, most of these technologies were originally limited to control microorganisms in food or water. In addition, they may not be adequate for controlling bioaerosols, because the environment of airborne microorganisms with high fluidity is vastly different from the conditions of food or water. Therefore, it is necessary to find adequate and practical conditions for controlling bioaerosols. In this study, bioaerosol control using thermal energy was studied experimentally including inactivation, aerosol characteristics, toxicity removal, etc. We used the bacteria and fungi microorganism as the representative bioaerosol and tested the physical and biological characteristics of bioaerosol in the exposure of elevated high temperature by thermal energy. In the study of bacterial bioaerosol, we investigated the aerosol characteristics, inactivation, injury, and toxicity removal of bacterial bioaerosols (Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis) using thermal energy. A thermal electric heating system was developed in which bioaerosols were exposed to a various temperature environment with very short residence time. In addition, techniques for quantitatively sam...