The potential to reduce emissions of airborne microorganisms by means of biological waste gas treatment systems

Investigations regarding the reduction of airborne germs in the waste gas of biowaste composting processes have been carried out at the Hamburg University of Science and Technology and the University of Leipzig. Numerous waste gas treatment plants, ranging from laboratory-scale to technical-scale, have been available at the institutes of these two project partners. All plants consisted of bioscrubber/biofilter combinations. The results showed that these biological systems designed for odour control are able to successfully reduce bioaerosol emissions, even though a reduction to background levels could not be achieved. The bioscrubber, if equipped with a droplet separator, proved to be mainly responsible for the reduction, whereas the biofilter acted as a source for microbial emissions originating from the filter material. It could be observed that the microbial population changed while passing the treatment system, indicating the ability of biological waste gas treatment systems to retain potentially pathogenic microorganisms from waste gases. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.