Evaluation of a Most Probable Number Method for Detection and Quantification of Legionella pneumophila

The detection and enumeration of Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) in water is crucial for water quality management, human health and has been a research hotspot worldwide. Due to the time-consuming and complicated operation of the plate culture method, it is necessary to adopt a fast and effective method for application. The present study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the performance and applicability of the MPN method by comparing its qualitative and quantitative results with the GB/T 18204.5-2013 and ISO methods, respectively. The qualitative results showed that 372 samples (53%) were negative for both methods; 315 samples (45%) were positively determined by the MPN method, compared with 211 samples (30%) using GB/T 18204.5-2013. The difference in the detection rate between the two methods was statistically significant. In addition, the quantitative results showed that the concentration of L. pneumophila by the MPN method was greater than ISO 11731 and the difference was statistically significant. However, the two methods were different but highly correlated (r = 0.965, p < 0.001). The specificity and sensitivity of the MPN method were 89.85% and 95.73%, respectively. Overall, the results demonstrated that the MPN method has higher sensitivity, a simple operation process and good application prospects in the routine monitoring of L. pneumophila from water samples.

Exergy Analyses of Low-Temperature District Heating Systems With Different Sanitary Hot-Water Boosters

This paper presents an exergy-efficiency analysis of low-temperature district heating systems (DHSs) with different sanitary hot-water (SHW) boosters. The required temperature of the sanitary hot water (SHW) was set to 50 °C. The main objective of this study was to compare the exergy efficiencies of a DHS without a booster to DHSs with three different types of boosters, i.e., electric-, gas-boiler- and heat-pump-based, during the winter and summer seasons. To achieve this, we developed a generalized model for the calculation of the exergy efficiency of a DHS with or without the booster. The results show that during the winter season, for a very low relative share of SHW production, the DHS without the booster exhibits favorable exergy efficiencies compared to the DHSs with boosters. By increasing this share, an intersection point above 45 °C for the supply temperatures, at which the higher exergy efficiency of a DHS with a booster prevails, can be identified. In the summer season the results show that a DHS without a booster at a supply temperature above 70 °C achieves lower exergy efficiencies compared to DHSs with boosters at supply temperatures above 40 °C. The results also show that ultra-low supply and return temperatures should be avoided for the DHSs with boosters, due to higher rates of entropy generation.

Combination of Heat Shock and Enhanced Thermal Regime to Control the Growth of a Persistent Legionella pneumophila Strain

Following nosocomial cases of Legionella pneumophila, the investigation of a hot water system revealed that 81.5% of sampled taps were positive for L. pneumophila, despite the presence of protective levels of copper in the water. A significant reduction of L. pneumophila counts was observed by culture after heat shock disinfection. The following corrective measures were implemented to control L. pneumophila: increasing the hot water temperature (55 to 60 °C), flushing taps weekly with hot water, removing excess lengths of piping and maintaining a water temperature of 55 °C throughout the system. A gradual reduction in L. pneumophila counts was observed using the culture method and qPCR in the 18 months after implementation of the corrective measures. However, low level contamination was retained in areas with hydraulic deficiencies, highlighting the importance of maintaining a good thermal regime at all points within the system to control the population of L. pneumophila.