Interactions of hydrophobic and hydrophilic solvent component degradation in an air‐phase biotrickling filter reactor

Abstract

Interactions amongst the degradation rates of toluene, xylenes, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), and n-butyl acetate (n-BA) were investigated. Experiments were performed in a biotrickling filter reactor packed with polypropylene Pall rings in a counter-current air-water mode of operation. Under pseudo-steady-state conditions, the removal efficiency (RE) of the individual components in the middle of and at the effluent above the reactor bed was evaluated. By using a mixed microbial culture as the biocatalyst, the results revealed that an increased loading of toluene and xylene had a competitive effect on the RE of MIBK. After reaching a saturation point of the overall catabolic capacity of the biocatalyst, variations of RE were observed for the different components. This was most pronounced under conditions of overloading with the water-soluble components mixture. Despite such variations, the system was able to efficiently degrade this complex pollutant mixture for a period of 1 yr.

Treatment of organic waste gas in a paint plant by combined technique of biotrickling filtration with photocatalytic oxidation

“…It was found that the conditions were more favorable for EA biodegradation than aromatic VOCs. Similar conclusions were also obtained for the mixtures of oxygenated and aromatic VOCs by other researchers [36][37][38]. It was considered that pollutants with high Henry's constant were more difficult to eliminate in BTF, because these pollutants had an unfavorable gas-liquid partition and the pollutants concentrations in the biofilm were too low to sustain a high biodegradation rate [13].…”

“…It was considered that, in a mixture of VOCs, the higher concentrations of hydrophilic VOCs were introduced, the lower removal rates for hydrophobic VOCs (e.g. aromatic VOCs) were obtained [36]. Hence, the REs of aromatic VOCs decreased dramatically on 30th day.…”

“…Based on the different inlet TVOC concentrations and reactors volume, it was considered that the comparative performances of reactors should also be evaluated by the EC besides the RE [36]. The EC, which was defined as the amount of VOCs degraded per unit of the reactor volume and time for various LRs, reflected the degrading capacity for treatment systems.…”

VOCs elimination and health risk reduction in e-waste dismantling workshop using integrated techniques of electrostatic precipitation with advanced oxidation technologies

“…Subsequently, the ozonation catalytic degradation of low concentration residual VOCs happens in situ on the activated carbon bed, leading to the almost complete removal of VOCs and the prevention of emission of formed ozone to the atmospheric environment. Besides RE, the comparative performance of advanced oxidation units are evaluated using elimination capacity (EC, the amount of VOCs degraded per unit of the reactor volume and time for different loading rates (LR)) [44]. Fig.…”

Lab-scale Evaluation of Two Biotechnologies to Treat VOC Air Emissions: Comparison with a Pilot Unit Installed in the Plastic Coating Sector

“…gas empty bed residence time, inlet load or nutrient formulation and concentration), and/or packing material characteristics, with the aim of obtaining valuable information from these biological technologies. BFs and BTFs have been applied in the treatment of streams contaminated with a wide variety of pollutants, including oxygenated compounds (Cox & Deshusses, 2001;Steele et al, 2005), aromatics (Hwang et al, 2008;Kennes et al, 1996), or its mixtures (Paca et al, 2006;Sempere et al, 2008). However, studies dealing with the removal of complex VOC mixtures from painting and coating processes using BFs or BTFs are limited, especially for pilot/full-scale units.…”