Improving the collection efficiency of the liquid impinger for ultrafine particles and viral aerosols by applying granular bed filtration

Kuo Pin Yu*, Yen Ping Chen, Jia You Gong, Yen Chi Chen, Chih Ching Cheng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Liquid impingers are utilized to collect bioaerosols for many advantages, such as avoiding dehydration of biological agents. However, many previous studies have reported that the liquid impingers are surprisingly inefficient for the collection of ultrafine bioaerosols, with collection efficiencies <30%. In the present work, we have successfully improved the collection efficiency of the liquid impinger (AGI30) to as high as 99% for particles in the size range of 20–400 nm with the aid of packed glass beads. We also systematically investigated the effects of influential factors on the collection efficiency. These factors include the volume of the sampling liquid (0, 20 and 30 mL), depth (0, 7 and 10 cm) of packed glass beads and sampling flow rate (4, 6 and 8 liter per min, lpm). According to our experimental results, increasing the depth of packed glass beads and the volume of sampling liquid can enhance the collection efficiency. Also, decreasing the sampling flow rate can increase the collection efficiency and reduce the loss of sampling liquid. For the sampling of viable MS2 phages, the collection efficiency of AGI30 sampler with packed glass beads is much higher than that without packed glass beads. Conclusively, this study validates that the granular bed filtration can enhance the collection efficiency of liquid impingers for submicron and ultrafine particles and viral aerosols.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)133-143
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Aerosol Science
Volume101
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2016

Keywords

  • Bioaerosols
  • Granular bed filtration
  • Liquid impingers
  • Ultrafine particles

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Improving the collection efficiency of the liquid impinger for ultrafine particles and viral aerosols by applying granular bed filtration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this