Sustainable treatment of air pollutants by moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) coupled with algae photobioreactor (APBR)

Abstract

The presence of high concentrations of VOCs in the atmosphere can lead to negative consequences for humans and the environment. The treatment of these compounds is thus necessary before their release into the atmosphere. In the study, an advanced moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) coupled with an algae photobioreactor (APBR) is presented with the aim of investigating its application for the sustainable biodegradation of toluene (C7H8). The results highlight that the MBBR alone shows a high removal efficiency (RE), ranging from 98.37 ±0.79% to 99.84 ±0.14%. Whiile, setting the Algal PhotoBioreactor (APBR) as second treatment, the biodegradation of toluene increases up to 99.91%. The research depicts the potential of the investigated system to biodegrade volatile organic compounds (VOCs), leading to a healthy environment.