Monitoring of Bioaerosol Emission from a Sludge Composting Facility

This paper presents results of one-year monitoring of bioaerosol dispersion from a full-scale sludge composting facility in the east coast of the USA. By using two-stage Andersen air samplers with a sequential sampling procedure developed in this study, a total of 24 sets of bioaerosol samples were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering 2003-09, Vol.1 (2), p.148-159
Main Authors: Chow-Feng Chiang, Hsi-Hsien Yang, Tze-Wen Chi
Format: Article
Language:Chinese
Subjects:
air dispersion model
Aspergillus fumigatus
bioaerosol
compost
Scopus
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Summary:This paper presents results of one-year monitoring of bioaerosol dispersion from a full-scale sludge composting facility in the east coast of the USA. By using two-stage Andersen air samplers with a sequential sampling procedure developed in this study, a total of 24 sets of bioaerosol samples were collected on petri dishes for plate counting. The sampling program utilized a computer air dispersion model (ISCST) to predict the downwind distance at the maximum concentration. Field samplings were performed at upwind, onsite, and predicted downwind locations. The results of this study conclude that the 95% confidence intervals estimated for the background concentrations were: 75-173 cfu/m3 for aerobic bacteria, 262-706 cfu/m3 for mesophilic fungi, 5.0-14 cfu/m3 for thermophilic fungi, and 2.3-12 cfu/m3 for Aspergillus fumigatus. The maximum probably downwind concentrations were evidently increased for aerobic bacteria and thermophilic fungi, but not for mesophilic fungi, fecal coliform, and fecal streptococcus.
ISSN:1727-2394