− Biological treatment is promising alternative to conventional air pollution control method. Bioreactors for air pollution control have found most of their success in the treatment of dilute and high flow waste air streams containing volatile organic compounds and odor. The studies of mass transfer in biotrickling filters for air pollution control were of importance in order to control and optimize the purification process. The objectives of this study were to develop the experimental methodologies to evaluate the mass transfer coefficients of gas/liquid(trickling liquid), gas/solid(biomass) and liquid/solid in three phase biotrickling filtration. Also, this study characterized the influence factors on mass transfer such as dynamic holdup volume, gas/liquid flow rate ratio, biomass weight in reactor and recirculation rate of trickling medium for each phase of biotrickling filter.
− A fundamental mathematical model for mass transfer processes has been used to understand the air pollution control process in biotrickling filtration and to evaluate the mass transfer coefficients of gas/liquid (trickling liquid), gas/ solid (biomass) and liquid/solid based upon experimental results and mathematical model calculations for selected operating conditions. The mass transfer models for the utilization of the steady-state mass balance for gas/liquid, and dynamic mass balance model for gas/solid & liquid/solid in biotrickling filters were established and discussed. The mass transfer model considered the reactor to comprise finite sections, for each of which dynamic mass balances for gas/solid and liquid/solid system were solved by numerical analysis code (numerical iteration). To determine the mass transfer coefficients (K L a) of gas/liquid, gas/solid & liquid/solid in a biotrickling filter, the calculation results based upon mass balance equation was optimized to coincide with the experimental results for the selected operating conditions. Finally, this study contributed the development of experimental methods and discussed the mathematical model to determine the mass transfer coefficients in a biotrickling filtration for air pollution control.
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