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Effect of Flow Rate, Concentration and Transient—State Operations on the Performance of a Biofilter Treating Xylene Vapors

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Abstract

Biological treatment systems such as biofilters offer a potential alternative to the existing physicochemical techniques for the removal of volatile organic compounds from gaseous emissions. In this experimental work, continuous phase biofiltration of xylene vapors were performed in a laboratory scale compost biofilter that was inoculated with a xylene-acclimatized consortium. The performance was assessed by continuously monitoring the removal efficiency (RE) and elimination capacity (EC) of the biofilter at loading rates varying between 2–220 g m−3 h−1. The steady-state removal efficiencies were maintained between 60% and 90% up to a loading rate of 80 g m−3 h−1. The removal efficiency decreased significantly at loading rates higher than 100 g m−3 h−1. The pressure drop values were consistently less and insignificant in affecting the performance of the system. The present study also focuses in evaluating the stability of biofilter during shut down, restart, and shock-loading operations. An immediate restoration of biological activity after few days of starvation indicated their capability to handle discontinuous treatment situations which is more common to industrial biofilters. The sensitiveness of the biofilm to withstand shock loads was tested by abruptly increasing/decreasing the loading rates between 9–55 g m−3 h−1, where, removal efficiencies between 60–90% were achieved. These results prove the resilience of the biomass and the stability of the compost biofilter. Anew, results from kinetic analysis reveal that, steady-state xylene removal in the biofilter can be adequately represented by Michaelis–Menten type kinetics, and the kinetic constants namely, ECmax (120.4 g m−3 h−1) and K s (2.21 g m−3) were obtained.

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Acknowledgements

This biofiltration research was carried out using the partial research grants received from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) under the project CHE/01-02/054/SIDA/DVSM and the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras. We are grateful to Mr. K. Narayana Rao and Mr. Z. Aslam Basha, Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Biotechnology IIT Madras for their analytical help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, University of La Coruña, Alejandro de la Sota, 1, 15071, La Coruña, Spain

    Eldon R. Rene

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, Tamilnadu, India

    D. V. S. Murthy & T. Swaminathan

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  1. Eldon R. Rene
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Correspondence to Eldon R. Rene.

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Rene, E.R., Murthy, D.V.S. & Swaminathan, T. Effect of Flow Rate, Concentration and Transient—State Operations on the Performance of a Biofilter Treating Xylene Vapors. Water Air Soil Pollut 211, 79–93 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0282-7

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