A state of the art review on the use of fungi in biofiltration to remove volatile hydrophobic pollutants

Abstract

The physical/chemical abatement of gas pollutants creates many technical problems, is costly and entails significant environmental impacts. Biological purification of off-gases is a cheap and ecologically safe way of neutralization of gas pollutants. Despite the recent advances, the main technological challenge nowadays is the purification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of hydrophobic character due to their low solubility in water. Among all known biological methods of air purification, the most cost-effective biodegradation of hydrophobic VOCs is conducted by biotrickling filters. In this context, fungi have gained an increasing interest in this field based on their ability to biodegrade hydrophobic VOCs. In addition, biotrickling filtration using fungi can support a superior hydrophobic VOC abatement when compared to the bacterial biofilters. This paper aims at reviewing the latest research results concerning biocatalytic activity of fungi and evaluating the possibilities of their practical application in biofiltration systems to remove hydrophobic VOCs.

Odors Emitted from Biological Waste and Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Mini-Review

“…Application of biofilters as an alternative for odor abatement has been extensively reviewed in the past [84]; however, novel applications and opportunities are still arising [85]. Liu et al (2021) proposed recently a novel three-stage integrated biofilter combining an acidophilic bacterial-based section for S and N removal and fungal-based and heterotrophic bacteria-based sections for the treatment of organic odorants such as VOCs from MSW treatment facilities [86].…”

Air Pollutants Removal Using Biofiltration Technique: A Challenge at the Frontiers of Sustainable Environment

“…(c) Physiochemical tools within biosorption and mineralization of contaminants. Reprinted with permission under a Creative Commons CC BY License from . Copyright 2022, Springer Nature.…”

“…Marycz et al 67 proposed a biofiltration study on fungi to dismiss volatile hydrophobic contaminants. The removal of gas impurities in biofiltration results from an intricate blend of different biological and physicochemical spectacles (Figure 4(a)).…”

Effects of Water Content and Irrigation of Packing Materials on the Performance of Biofilters and Biotrickling Filters: A Review

“…The disadvantage of BFs is the difficulty in controlling the moisture content of their packing materials. BTFs allow better control of operational parameters such as biofilm thickness, pH, and subsequently the elimination of pollutants can be performed at higher VOC inlet loadings than with conventional BFs [44]. Contrary to BFs, BTFs do not require pre-humidification of inlet gas before its treatment; although, the humidification of inlet gases before entering BTF using humidifiers was performed in some studies [45,46].…”

“…Fungi can be more tolerant to dry conditions than bacteria and can be a suitable choice for VOC treatment in BTFs [44]. Zhang et al [53] studied toluene removal through BTF inoculated with Fusarium oxysporum.…”