Identification of contribution of ACMV system to indoor bioaerosol concentration

• Main Author: Muhammad Hannan Abu Samah
• Other Authors: Wan Man Pun
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72223
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this study, samples of indoor airborne bioaerosols were collected during the operational period of an ACMV unit. The purpose behind this was to identify whether the ACMV unit, such as an air conditioning unit in this study, could be a source of bioaerosols being deposited and accumulated onto the surrounding indoor air. In order to do so, High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) filter was used at entrance of inlet and outlet of the ventilation duct as to quantify the bioaerosol emissions from the ventilation duct. The results have reported that there were significant amount of bioaerosols being emitted via the ventilation duct, particularly airborne bacterial particles. The average concentration level of indoor airborne bacterial and fungal particles coming from the ventilation duct were estimated to be 88 CFU/m3 and 51 CFU/m3 respectively. It was also noted that there were considerable concentration level of indoor airborne bacterial and fungal particles even when the ACMV unit had filters to block the emission coming from the ventilation duct. This suggested that other factors such as the human occupancy might have contributed to the concentration level of indoor bioaerosols. This study has provided a new insight about the emission of airborne bacterial and fungal particles from ACMV unit, of which its exposure needs to be controlled for air-conditioned buildings.