Photocatalytic treatment of bioaerosols: impact of the reactor design.
Comparing the UV-A photocatalytic treatment of bioaerosols contaminated with different airborne microorganisms such as L. pneumophila bacteria, T2 bacteriophage viruses and B. atrophaeus bacterial spores, pointed out a decontamination sensitivity following the bacteria > virus > bacterial spore ranking order, differing from that obtained for liquid-phase or surface UV-A photocatalytic disinfection. First-principles CFD investigation applied to a model annular photoreactor evidenced that larger the microorganism size, higher the hit probability with the photocatalytic surfaces. Applied to a commercial photocatalytic purifier case-study, the CFD calculations showed that the performances of the studied purifier could strongly benefit from rational reactor design engineering. The results obtained highlighted the required necessity to specifically investigate the removal of airborne microorganisms in terms of reactor design, and not to simply transpose the results obtained from studies performed toward chemical pollutants, especially for a successful commercial implementation of air decontamination photoreactors. This illustrated the importance of the aerodynamics in air decontamination, directly resulting from the microorganism morphology.
Josset
Sébastien
S
Laboratoire des Matériaux, Surfaces et Procédés pour la Catalyse (LMSPC), CNRS, Strasbourg University, 25 rue Becquerel, Strasbourg, France.
Taranto
Jérôme
J
Keller
Nicolas
N
Keller
Valérie
V
Lett
Marie-Claire
MC
D000336:Aerosols / Q000528:radiation effects*; D001407:Bacillus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000528:radiation effects; D017122:Bacteriophage T4 / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000528:radiation effects; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental / Q000528:radiation effects; D019149:Bioreactors; D002384:Catalysis / Q000528:radiation effects; D004203:Disinfection; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000528:radiation effects; D012212:Rheology; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000528:radiation effects; D013997:Time Factors; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
D000336:Aerosols