A biofilter integrated with gas membrane separation unit for the treatment of fluctuating styrene loads

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBiofiltration for volatile organic compound control in waste gas streams is best operated at steady contaminant loadings. To provide long-term stable operation of a biofilter under adverse contaminant feeding conditions, an integrated bioreactor system with a gas separation membrane module installed after a biofilter was proposed for styrene treatment. Styrene was treated effectively, with average styrene effluent concentrations maintained at less than 50 mg m À3 and a total removal efficiency of over 96% achieved when the biofiltration column faced fluctuating loads. The maximum elimination capacity of the integrated bioreactor system was 93.8 g m À3 h À1, which was higher than that obtained with the biofiltration column alone. The combination of these two processes (microbial and chemical) led to more efficient elimination of styrene and buffering of the fluctuating loads. The factors on gas membrane separation, microbial characteristics in the integrated bioreactor and membrane fouling were also investigated in this study.

Start-up, performance and optimization of a compost biofilter treating gas-phase mixture of benzene and toluene

“…The removal of individual VOCs from contaminated air streams has been a subject of many research studies, wherein either chemical or biological or a combination of both the techniques have been proposed (Chang et al, 2011;Chan and Lai, 2008;Li et al, 2012;Singh et al, 2006). Chemical based techniques for treating VOCs have proven to be expensive due to its high maintenance, energy and operational costs (Mudliar et al, 2010).…”

The Role of Bacteria and Factors Affecting the Biodegradation of Pollutants in the Biofilter Reactor: A Review

“…[13]. However, many bio-filtration designers currently focus only on the absorption properties of biofilters rather than the formation of bacterial colonies, which will later break down pollutant elements into elements that are harmless to the environment [29][30][31][32]. The lack of information about the performance of biofilter reactors on technical and semi-technical scales is an obstacle in the development of this science because most of the previous research was carried out at the laboratory scale [15,17,28,30,33].…”

Biological technologies for the removal of sulfur containing compounds from waste streams: bioreactors and microbial characteristics

“…The enriched-hydrogen sulfide in the permeated stream is charged to the biofilter and the concentration of sulfur compounds in the retentate stream is then low enough for venting into the atmosphere. An integrated bioreactor system with a gas separation membrane module installed after a biofilter was proposed for styrene treatment to provide long-term stable operation of a biofilter under adverse contaminant feeding conditions (Li et al 2012). Total removal efficiency of over 96 % was achieved when the biofiltration column faced fluctuating loads and the maximum elimination capacity of the integrated bioreactor system was 93.8 g m -3 h -1 , which was higher than that obtained with the biofiltration column alone.…”

“…Total removal efficiency of over 96 % was achieved when the biofiltration column faced fluctuating loads and the maximum elimination capacity of the integrated bioreactor system was 93.8 g m -3 h -1 , which was higher than that obtained with the biofiltration column alone. The combination of gas separation and microbial processes resulted in increased removal efficiency, less sensitivity to inlet load surge and minimized bioreactor volume (Li et al 2012). To date, all investigations carried out on membrane reactors have been laboratory scale experiments.…”