Removal of toluene from air- scream using semi industrial two-phase bioscrubber with cutting oil: An intervention study

Abstract

Toluene is a single-ring aromatic, which is widely used in various industrial processes. Regarding to harmful effects to human, the aim of this study was removal of toluene from the airflow using industrial-scale low-pressure two-phase bioscrubber with cutting oil. The design of the bioscrubber of the present study consisted of two parts of the adsorption column and a. Also, cutting oil was added at concentrations of 5%, 7.5% and 10% as organic phases and tested. The results show that after 72 hours with increasing organic phase concentration, toluene concentration was further decomposed compared to the control sample. The results showed that the use of 5% concentration of cutting oil increased the efficiency from 22% in the case of no organic phase to 55% in the case of using 5% of cutting oil. At a concentration of 7.5%, the lowest efficiency was 38% and the highest was 63%. Also, the minimum and maximum removal capacity are 17 and 269 g/m3.h, respectively. Efficiency at a concentration level of 5% of cutting oil as an organic phase is better than a concentration of 7.5%. In this study, for the first time in Iran, cutting oil was used as an organic phase, which showed that cutting oil in concentrations less than 10% had no effect on the growth of microorganisms. The results showed that shear oil and silicone oil increased the adsorption of volatile organic compounds in bioscrubber.