Characterization and control of the microbial community affiliated with copper or aluminum heat exchangers of HVAC systems.

Current Microbiology
Michael G SchmidtH T Michels

Abstract

Microbial growth in heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems with the subsequent contamination of indoor air is of increasing concern. Microbes and the subsequent biofilms grow easily within heat exchangers. A comparative study where heat exchangers fabricated from antimicrobial copper were evaluated for their ability to limit microbial growth was conducted using a full-scale HVAC system under conditions of normal flow rates using single-pass outside air. Resident bacterial and fungal populations were quantitatively assessed by removing triplicate sets of coupons from each exchanger commencing the fourth week after their installation for the next 30 weeks. The intrinsic biofilm associated with each coupon was extracted and characterized using selective and differential media. The predominant organisms isolated from aluminum exchangers were species of Methylobacterium of which at least three colony morphologies and 11 distinct PFGE patterns we found; of the few bacteria isolated from the copper exchangers, the majority were species of Bacillus. The concentrations and type of bacteria recovered from the control, aluminum, exchangers were found to be dependent on the type of plating media used and were 11,411-47,257...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 18, 2015·Biometals : an International Journal on the Role of Metal Ions in Biology, Biochemistry, and Medicine·M S GiãoC W Keevil
Aug 18, 2017·Antonie van Leeuwenhoek·Kouta HatayamaHiroyuki Ito
Aug 16, 2019·Clinical Microbiology Reviews·Linda P ArendsenAbdul H Sultan
Dec 17, 2020·Nanomaterials·Inês B GomesLúcia C Simões

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