Effect of Starvation on the Performance and Re-acclimation of Biotrickling Filters for Air Pollution Control

Abstract

Biotrickling filters for air pollution control are expected to encounter fluctuating conditions or periods without pollutant supply. In the present study, we investigated the effect of pollutant starvation in bench-scale biotrickling filters treating toluene. The experimental protocol consisted of starving biotrickling filters under various conditions: with or without airflow, with or without liquid recycle, and with or without an alternate carbon source (glucose) supply. The duration of the period without toluene was varied from 2 to 9 days, during time which the biotrickling filters were monitored for biomass content, endogenous and toluene-induced oxygen uptake rates during starvation, and toluene overall elimination capacity after restart. During starvation, all reactors lost their ability to degrade toluene within 5 days, regardless of the mode of starvation. The biomass content significantly decreased during starvation, in particular in those reactors where the recycle liquid was maintained, but this decrease was not critical for future re-acclimation. Glucose addition to starved biotrickling filters had several detrimental effects. It resulted in a faster decrease of the biomass content and slowed the reacclimation phase. Overall, the results show that the reacclimation of toluene-degrading biotrickling filters after periods of nonuse is short (10-24 h to re-establish full performance), and they suggest that, in the case of toluene-degrading biotrickling filters, re-acclimation time is largely governed by the induction of key pollutant-degrading enzymes.

Performance of a Pilot-Scale Biotrickling Filter in Controlling the Volatile Organic Compound Emissions in a Furniture Manufacturing Facility

“…Published data related to the behavior of BTFs under typical perturbations in industry (e.g., cyclic pollutant feeding, variable inlet concentration, starvation periods, and shutdowns) are relatively scarce. 23,24 Successful reacclimation of toluene-degrading BTFs has been reported after periods of up to 9 days of non-use, 25 and ethyl acetate removal in a peat biofilter after a non-use period of as much as 15 days. 26 In addition, it has been reported 8,27,28 that a buffering carbon filter installed preceding biological reactor facilitates the treatment of sudden variations in concentration, spikes, and unstable loads of VOCs.…”

Evaluation of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter Performance under Periodic Stressed Operating Conditions as a Function of Styrene Loading

“…14 Some studies reported biofilter performance under chemical starvation conditions. 11,13,15,16 Fitch et al studied biofiltration for 1-butanol removal under continuous and diurnal loading conditions and reported that diurnal operation did not contribute to a decrease in biofilter efficiency as compared with continuous operation. 13 Most of these studies were concerned mainly with the reacclimation periods and the duration and mode of starvation.…”

Steady-State and Dynamic Desorption of Organic Vapor from Activated Carbon with Electrothermal Swing Adsorption

“…where N is the total number of corresponding data points, and x (1) and x (2) represent corresponding properties of interest.…”