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Performance of a biotrickling filter in the removal of waste gases containing low concentrations of mixed VOCs from a paint and coating plant

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Abstract

The performance of a field-scale biotrickling filter (BTF) in the removal of waste gases containing low concentrations of mixed volatile organic compounds was evaluated. Results showed that acetone and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) were more easily removed than toluene and styrene. The removal efficiency for acetone and MEK reached over 99% on days 28 and 25 of the operation, whereas those for toluene and styrene were 80 and 63% on day 38. The maximum individual elimination capacities for styrene, toluene, acetone, and MEK were 10.2, 2.7, 4.7, and 8.4 g/m3 h, respectively. These values were achieved at inlet loading rates of 13.9, 3.3, 4.8, and 8.5 g/m3 h, respectively, at an empty bed retention time of 14 s. the removal efficiency for styrene and toluene rapidly increased from 67% and 83% to 86% and over 99%, respectively, when the concentration of ammonia nitrogen (N–NH4 +) and phosphates (P) in the nutrients increased from 350 to 840 mg/l and 76 to 186 mg/l. When the BTF was restarted after a four-day shutdown, the removal efficiency for toluene was restored to over 99% within a week. However, that for styrene was not restored to its previous level before the shutdown. No noticeable adverse effect on acetone and MEK removal was observed. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis results for the bacterial community in the BTF during VOC removal showed that proteobacterial phylum was dominant, and the changes of nutrient concentration and shutdown periods may have played a role in the community structure differences.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support from Sciences strategic cooperative project of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy (No.2009B091300023), the Science and Technology project of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2009B030400001,2010A030200021), and the Natural Science Foundation project of Guangdong province, China (No.10151007002000010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Jianjun Li, Duanfang Sun, Guoping Sun & Shizhong Liang

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Culture Collection and Application, Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Jianjun Li, Guangyun Ye, Duanfang Sun & Guoping Sun

  3. Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China

    Taicheng An

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  1. Jianjun Li
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  2. Guangyun Ye
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  3. Duanfang Sun
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  4. Taicheng An
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  5. Guoping Sun
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  6. Shizhong Liang
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Correspondence to Guoping Sun or Shizhong Liang.

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Li, J., Ye, G., Sun, D. et al. Performance of a biotrickling filter in the removal of waste gases containing low concentrations of mixed VOCs from a paint and coating plant. Biodegradation 23, 177–187 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-011-9497-6

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