Bioaerosols are airborne particles of biological origins including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and all varieties of living materials. In suitable hosts, bioaerosols are capable of causing acute or chornic diseases that may be infectious, allergenic, or toxigenic. Bioaerosols from outdoor air accumulate on filters of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system in large quantities and are able to multiply there under certain conditions. In this study, silver was coated on activated carbon fiber (ACF) filters by an electroless plating method, and their efficacy for bioaerosols removal was tested. Physical filtration and biological antimicrobial test were performed. SEM and XRD analyses were used to characterize the morphology and components of ACF filters. Electroless silver-plated ACF filters showed antimicrobial efficiency, whereas pure ACF filters did not. It was found that electroless silver plating did not influence the physical filtration efficiency of ACF filters.

A ventilation system comprising a dielectric barrier discharger and UV‐TiO2 photocatalyst filters was designed and tested for simultaneous removal of gaseous and particulate contaminants in a test chamber. The DBD was used as the 1st stage of ESP for particle charging and gas decomposition. Charged particles were collected in the 2nd stage of ESP by an applied DC electric field. The UV‐TiO2 photocatalyst filters were used for decomposing gaseous species including O3 which was inherently produced by the DBD. Particle removal efficiencies based on mass and number were approximately 83.0% and 88.8%, respectively, after the ventilation system was operating for 5 hours. HCHO removal efficiency was approximately 100% for 1∼5ppm of upstream concentration condition. TVOC removal efficiency was 99.0% and 99.6% for 1 ppm and 5 ppm of upstream concentration conditions, respectively.

Abstract Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in air, which has been established for the production of large quantities of ozone, is more recently being applied to a wider range of aftertreatment processes for HAPs (hazardous air pollutants). Although DBD has high electron density and energy, its potential use as precharging nano and submicron sized particles, is not known. In this work, we measured V‐I (voltage‐current) characteristics of DBD and estimated the collection efficiency of particles with bimodal distribution by DBD type 2‐stage ESP (electrostatic precipitator). To examine the particle collection with various applied voltage waveforms of DBD, nano size particles of NaCl (20∼100 nm) and DOS (50∼800 nm) were generated by an electrical tube furnace and an atomizer, respectively. Particle collection efficiencies of all the cases increased with increase of DBD electric power that the results corresponded to product of V by I whose magnitudes were the largest in triangular voltage waveform.

Decomposition of ozone at room temperature was investigated by comparing between commercial monolithic ozone decomposition catalyst (ODC, MnO2) filter and monolithic photocatalyst (TiO2) filter. The effects of residence time, UV (ultraviolet, A type) irradiation, and upstream ozone concentration on the ozone conversion were discussed. UV ray was irradiated using four BLB (black light blue) lamps (λ: 310∼ 400nm) of constant intensity. The upstream concentration of ozone was controlled by an electrostatic ozone generator. For ODC performance, the presence of UV irradiation slightly affected initial ozone conversion compared with no UV irradiation condition. However, for photocatalyst, the ozone was highly decomposed in the presence of UV irradiation. Long time performances of the both catalysts were evaluated by a real-time ozone monitoring system during 120 hours. The results show that the UV irradiation enhanced the ozone conversion for the both catalysts.