Abstract
The treatment of poorly water soluble waste gas compounds,such as ethene, is associated with low substrateconcentration levels in the liquid phase. This lowconcentration level might hamper the optimal development ofa microbial population. In this respect, the possible benefit ofintroducing nitrifying activity in the heterotrophic removal ofethene at moderate concentrations (< 1000 ppm) from awaste gas was investigated. Nitrifying activity is known to beassociated with (i) the production of soluble microbialproducts, which can act as (co-)substrates for heterotrophicmicro-organisms and (ii) the co-oxidation of ethene. Theused reactor configuration was a packed granular activatedcarbon biobed inoculated with the heterotrophic strain Mycobacterium E3. The nitrifying activity was introduced byregular submersion in a nitrifying medium prepared from (i)compost or (ii) activated sludge. In both cases a clearenhancement of the volumetric removal rate of ethene couldbe observed. When combined with a NH3 dosage on adaily basis, a gradual increase of the volumetric removal rateof ethene could be observed. For a volumetric loading rateof 3 kg ethene-COD·m-3·d-1, the volumetric removal rate could thus be increased with a factor1.8, i.e. from 0.72 to a level of 1.26 kgethene-COD·m-3·d- 1.
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De heyder, B., Van Elst, T., Van Langenhove, H. et al. Enhancement of ethene removal from waste gas by stimulating nitrification. Biodegradation 8, 21–30 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008204803231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008204803231