Performance Evaluation of Electrostatic Particle Ionization and Electro-Nanospray for Inlet Air Treatment in Livestock Facilities Under Controlled Conditions

Disease outbreaks impose substantial economic impacts on livestock production systems due to mortality, mandatory depopulation, reduced productivity, and additional costs associated with disease mitigation and biosecurity strategies. The introduction of viruses into commercial livestock facilities via ventilation system inlets has been recognized as an important pathway for disease transmission in livestock production. In this study, two ionization-based technologies, electrostatic particle ionization (EPI) and electro-nanospray (ENS), were evaluated under various configurations to assess their ability to reduce airborne microbial concentrations in ventilation inlet air in confined animal facilities. Experiments were conducted under controlled conditions using Escherichia coli (E. coli) as a model microorganism. Both systems reduced airborne E. coli concentrations compared with the untreated control; however, the EPI system achieved higher reductions than the ENS system under the configurations and operating conditions evaluated for each system. In addition, the observed influence of system configuration in both technologies highlights key engineering parameters governing system performance, thereby providing insights into the optimization of these technologies.