Bioaerosol Release from Concentrated Microbial Suspensions in Bubbling Processes

Abstract

Bursting bubbles are one of the most common mechanisms in aerosols’ formation from natural and artificial waterbodies. The presence of microbial materials in the liquid could cause their aerosolization and generation of bioaerosols. The process depends on a number of parameters of the gas and liquid involved. This project investigated the influence of the air flow, bubble size, the temperature of the liquid and its surface tension on the efficiency of bioaerosol generation. It was found that the bioaerosol is more efficiently produced at higher air flow rates and smaller bubble size. The influence of the liquid temperature was also identified to be quite high, reaching an order of magnitude of the bioaerosol concentration over the temperature range from 4 °C to 38 °C. The addition of surfactants did suppress the foam formation, which was found to have a negative effect on the process; the rate of the bioaerosol generation increased with the increase in the antifoam concentration.