No abstract

A semi-industrial bioscrubber was developed to treat a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including oxygenated, aromatic, and chlorinated compounds. Packed and atomizing columns were used for the bioscrubber. For an applied inlet load of around 850  –  870  g VOCs·m−3 packing material·h−1, the various performances of the bioscrubber were equivalent (around 50%), regardless of the selected absorption column. Only the removal efficiency of oxygenated compounds was found to be reasonable, close to 80%  –  85%. For the bioscrubber equipped with an atomizing column, a doubling of the inlet load involved a decrease in the removal efficiency of the VOC mixture (35%) and oxygenated compounds (from 80% to 55%). As the transferred compounds were biodegraded, the limits could be explained by the hydrodynamic characteristics of the atomizing column. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the necessity of optimizing the gas  –  liquid mass transfer step. Two-phase partitioning bioreactors seem to represent an attractive option, even though knowledge of the transfer of compounds and biodegradation mechanisms is required prior to scale-up and industrial use.

A semi-industrial bioscrubber was developed to treat a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including oxygenated, aromatic, and chlorinated compounds. Packed and atomizing columns were used for the bioscrubber. For an applied inlet load of around 850–870 g VOCs·m–3 packing material·h–1, the various performances of the bioscrubber were equivalent (around 50%), regardless of the selected absorption column. Only the removal efficiency of oxygenated compounds was found to be reasonable, close to 80%–85%. For the bioscrubber equipped with an atomizing column, a doubling of the inlet load involved a decrease in the removal efficiency of the VOC mixture (35%) and oxygenated compounds (from 80% to 55%). As the transferred compounds were biodegraded, the limits could be explained by the hydrodynamic characteristics of the atomizing column. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the necessity of optimizing the gas–liquid mass transfer step. Two-phase partitioning bioreactors seem to represent an attractive option, even though knowledge of the transfer of compounds and biodegradation mechanisms is required prior to scale-up and industrial use.

No abstract