Performance evaluation of an electrostatic precipitator with a copper plate using an aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 surrogate (bacteriophage phi 6)

Sang Bin Jeong; Jae Hak Shin; Sam Woong Kim; Sung Chul Seo; Jae Hee Jung

doi:10.1016/j.eti.2023.103124

Performance evaluation of an electrostatic precipitator with a copper plate using an aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 surrogate (bacteriophage phi 6)

Environ Technol Innov. 2023 May:30:103124. doi: 10.1016/j.eti.2023.103124. Epub 2023 Mar 23.

Authors

Sang Bin Jeong¹, Jae Hak Shin¹, Sam Woong Kim², Sung Chul Seo³, Jae Hee Jung¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea.
² Agri-Food Bio Convergence Institute, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52725, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Nano, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seokyeong University, Seoul 02713, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

The global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has reminded us of the importance of developing technologies to reduce and control bioaerosols in built environments. For bioaerosol control, the interaction between researchers and biomaterials is essential, and considering the characteristics of target pathogens is strongly required. Herein, we used enveloped viral aerosols, bacteriophage phi 6, for evaluating the performance of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) with a copper-collecting plate (Cu-plate). In particular, bacteriophage phi 6 is an accessible enveloped virus that can be operated in biosafety level (BSL)-1 as a promising surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 with structural and morphological similarities. ESP with Cu-plate showed >91% of particle removal efficiency for viral aerosols at 77 cm/s of airflow face velocity. Moreover, the Cu-plate presented a potent antiviral performance of 5.4-relative log reduction within <15 min of contact. We believe that the evaluation of ESP performance using an aerosolized enveloped virus and plaque assay is invaluable. Our results provide essential information for the development of bioaerosol control technologies that will lead the post-corona era.

Keywords: Antiviral; Bacteriophage phi 6; Bioaerosol; Electrostatic precipitator; SARS-CoV-2.