Proceedings of International Conference on Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. 2011.

The air quality of agricultural animal feeding facility has been concerned to be potentially hazardous to the workers and producers in recent years. Literatures have demonstrated the health problems, respiratory symptoms, airborne bacteria and fungus concentration. Predicala et al., 2002 use six-stage impactor to investigate the bioaerosols concentrations in swine barn. 8.6 × 104 colony forming unit (CFU)/m3 was found. The mean respirable concentrations was 9.0 × 103 CFU/m3 , indicated the workers was exposure to high respiratory risk [1]. Donham et al., 1989 reported that 60% of workers in the swine house suffered from respiratory symptoms including dry cough, chest tightness and irritation of the nose [2]. 53× 107 CFU/m3 and 62 × 106 CFU/m3 of total bacteria and staphylococcus species was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction method of bird catchers in chicken house [3]. From the standing points of occupational health and environmental quality, the technology for airborne decontamination of bioaerosols was highly demanded. Membrane-less Electrolyzed water (MLEW) is generated by electrolysis of saline brine in a container within anodic and cathodic electrodes. Its product contains high oxidation-reduction potential (>1,000 mV), free available chlorine (FAC) compounds. The traditional membrane built-in mechanism generates strong acidic and alkali products in the same time. Only the acidic products can be utilized for microbial disinfection after dilution. Nevertheless, the MLEW, generated from membrane-less mechanism in single container could maintain in slightly acidic to neutral, resulting higher yielding efficiency. While the pH of the MLEW range from 5.0~6.5, the effective form of chlorine-related compounds in is the hypochlorous acid (HOCl), presents the strong antimicrobial property. Originated from the natural material, economic production, environmentally friendly, biological compatible and broad decontamination to microorganisms, the MLEW shows high potential as the alternative disinfectant [4] [5]. In the study, an on-site MLEW generating and foggingspread system was designed and installed in selected experimental hen house for bioaerosols decontamination. Airborne bacteria and fungus density was measured by viable impacting collection for evaluating the performance.