An Investigation on the Efficiency of Air Purification Using a Biofilter with Activated Bed of Different Origin

Abstract

Recent studies in the area of biological air treatment in filters have addressed fundamental key issues, such as a biofilter bed of different origin composed of natural zeolite granules, foam cubes and wood chips. When foam and zeolite are mixed with wood chips to remove volatile organic compounds from the air, not only biological but also adsorption air purification methods are accomplished. The use of complex purification technologies helps to improve the efficiency of a filter as well as the bed service life of the filter bed. Investigations revealed that microorganisms prevailing in biological purification, can also reproduce themselves in biofilter beds of inorganic and synthetic origin composed of natural zeolite and foam. By cultivating associations of spontaneous microorganisms in the filter bed the dependencies of the purification efficiency of filter on the origin, concentration and filtration time of injected pollutants were determined. The highest purification efficiency was obtained when air polluted with acetone vapour was supplied to the equipment at 0.1 m/s of superficial gas velocity. When cleaning air from volatile organic compounds (acetone, toluene and butanol), under the initial pollutant concentration of ~100 mg/m 3 , the filter efficiency reached 95 %.

Development of the mathematical model of the biotreatment process of water-soluble gaseous emissions

“…Among modern gas treatment units, biofilters [12,13] and trickle-bed bioreactors are in general use [14]. Many modern studies are devoted to the determination of kinetic parameters and mathematical description of the biotreatment process.…”

Development of universal model of kinetics of bioremediation stationary process with substrate inhibition

“…В литературе также отмечена высокая эффектив-ность биоочистки выбросов от различных органиче-ских соединений (ацетон, толуол и бутанол), для ко-торых при начальной концентрацией загрязняющего агента 100 мг/м 3 , эффективность биофильтра дости-гает 95 % [11]. Также достаточно хорошо рассмотрены кинетические характеристики процесса очистки в био-пленке сооружений очистки газов [12].…”

Development of the mathematical model of the kinetics of the stationary process of bio-cleaning with substratic inhibition

“…Numerous scientific publications have reviewed the possibility of purifying gases from ammonia, hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, ethyl mercoptan, carbon disulfide [2], dimethyl sulfide, ethanol, benzene, toluene [3], ethyl benzene, formaldehyde, dichloromethane, and other substances [2][3][4]. Bioreactors of various designs are applicable for cleaning, for example, bioscrubbers and bioabsorbers [5], reactors with a washable bed [6], membrane bioreactors [7], biofilters with different filling [8], for example, soil [9]. Quite a lot of work is devoted to the description of the mechanisms that occur during biological detoxification of emissions.…”