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4B - Human health and environmental connections (WEP/194) comparison between two advanced technologies used to abate PAH generated during cooking by industrial catering. Giacometti, Andrea1, Perin, Guido1, Armani, Paola1, Manente, Sabrina1, 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Venice, Calle Larga S. Marta 2137, I-30123, Venice, Italy, Italy ABSTRACT- The objective of the present research is the evaluation of the abatement ability of the new centrifuge/scrubber system (CIS) as compared with the conventional ′active charcoal′absorption system (GAC) especially when concerning carcinogenic PAH. First of all, experimental results clearly confirmed that in the course of thermal processes occurring during food cooking polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are generated in variable amounts. Different cooking processes may generate PAH, particularly those PAH having carcinogenic activity, in concentrations which can vary by an order of magnitude even when considering the same single PAH specimen. Nonetheless, the total PAH concentrations measured during our experiments were around the same order of magnitude of those reported in literature. Interestingly, as far as the environmental pollution and public health risk assessment are concerned, PAH concentration and their carcinogenic potential are rather remarkable, around hundreds of Key words: PAH generation by cooking, PAH abatement, centrifuge/scrubber system, CIS |
g per kg of cooked product. Second, despite CIS and GAC display different characteristics when considering PAH elimination, both showed to be valuable abatement technologies provided they were in perfectly cleaned condition. CIS seemed to be superior to GAC especially for high molecular weight PAH, including those having higher carcinogenic activity. When perfectly cleaned condition was no more fulfilled, CIS showed to be still somewhat superior to GAC due to the release (stripping) of some PAH by the charcoal to the atmosphere so that the output PAH concentrations were larger to the input ones. However, when no cleaning was performed some PAH release was observed also in the case of CIS. As far as the maintenance costs, GAC is clearly more expensive with respect to CIS which is also easy to be managed. Also, ecologically speaking, taking into account the final destination of the pollutants isolated from the air stream, CIS presents a limited volume of polluted liquid (1-2 m3 of water) which is easy to handle and to transport and whose terminal treatment cost (by biological degradation or by other means) is rather limited.