Biofilter Treatment of Waste Air Containing Malodor and VOC: 1. Pressure Drop and Microbe-population Distribution of Biofilter with Improved Design

Abstract

Abstact − In this study, both pressure drop and microbe-population-distribution were observed while running a novel biofilter system with improved design in which the biofilter system is composed of two, upper and lower biofilters with both equal feed-rates of up-flow and down-flow, respectively. Then they were compared with the pressure drop and microbe-population-distribution observed in a conventional biofilter of the same effective volume with unidirectional flow. The pressure drop-value of biofilter system with improved design turned out to be less at the incipient stage of run or steady-state long term operation by more than 40~80% of that of the conventional biofilter. The microbe-populationdistribution was observed to be lower and higher at higher and lower column of biofilter, respectively, for both the conventional biofilter and the biofilter system with improved design. The microbe-media of waste-tire crumb showed much greater CFU counts than GAC. In the biofilter system with improved design, the bottom→up feeding of waste air showed greater microbe-population growth than the top→down feeding for both the microbe-media of waste-tire crumb and GAC. However, it was more prominent for the former than the latter. Comparing the microbe-population-distributions of both of the conventional biofilter and the biofilter system with improved design, the microbe-population of latter was distributed ca. 15 and 2.5 times more evenly for GAC and the media of waste-tire crumb, respectively, than that of former.

Biofilter Treatment of Waste Air Containing Malodor and VOC: 2. Transient Behavior of Biofilter with Improved Design to Eliminate Malodor and VOC

“…3. Schematic diagram of a biofilter system with improved design (R reactor) and a conventional biofilter (L reactor) treating waste-air containing malodor and VOC [9]. The direction of waste air-supply to a biofilter system with improved design has been reversed at the 8th stage of each biofilter with improved design (Rreactor) run (The directions of bottom-up and top-down were reversed to those of top-down and bottom-up, respectively).…”