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Airborne toluene removal for minimizing occupational health exposure by means of a trickle-bed biofilter

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Abstract

The paper presents the experimental results on a biotrickling pilot plant, with a water scrubber as pre-treatment, finalized to the treatment of an airborne toluene stream in a working place. The air stream was characterized by a very high variability of the inlet concentrations of toluene (range: 4.35–68.20 mg Nm−3) with an average concentrations of 16.41 mg Nm−3. The pilot plant has proved its effectiveness in toluene removal, along a 90-day experimentation period, in steady-state conditions. The scrubbing pre-treatment has achieved an average removal efficiency of 69.9 %, but in particular it has proven its suitability in the rough removal of the toluene peak concentrations, allowing a great stability to the following biological process. The biotrickling stage has achieved an additional average removal efficiency of 75.6 %, confirming the good biodegradability of toluene. The biofilm observation by a scanning confocal laser microscope has evidenced a biofilm thickness of 650 μm fully penetrated by toluene degrading bacteria. Among the micro-population Pseudomonas putida resulted the dominant specie. This bacterium can therefore be considered the responsible for most of the toluene degradation. The whole experimented process has determined an average 92.7 % for toluene removal efficiency. This result meets the most stringent limits and recommendations for occupational safety, given by authoritative organizations in the USA and EU; it also meets the odorous threshold concentration of 11.1 mg Nm−3.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by the FAR program of the Rome University “La Sapienza”. The Authors also wish to acknowledge AirClean (Rho, Milan, Italy) for its technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Industrial Engineering, University LIUC-Cattaneo, Corso Matteotti 22, I-21053, Castellanza, Varese, Italy

    Massimo Raboni

  2. Department of Biotechnologies and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Via Dunant 3, I-21100, Varese, Italy

    Vincenzo Torretta

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Via Eudossiana 18, I-00184, Rome, Italy

    Paolo Viotti

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  1. Massimo Raboni
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  2. Vincenzo Torretta
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Correspondence to Paolo Viotti.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

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Raboni, M., Torretta, V. & Viotti, P. Airborne toluene removal for minimizing occupational health exposure by means of a trickle-bed biofilter. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 11751–11758 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6352-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6352-7

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