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

Abstract

A 0.75-m 3 pilot-scale biotrickling filter was run for over 1 yr in a Spanish furniture company to evaluate its performance in the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained in the emission of two different paint spray booths. The first one was an open front booth used to manually paint furniture, and the second focus was an automatically operated closed booth operated to paint pieces of furniture. In both cases, the VOC emissions were very irregular, with rapid and extreme fluctuations. The pilot plant was operated at an empty bed residence time (EBRT) ranging from 10 to 40 sec, and good removal efficiencies of VOCs were usually obtained. When a buffering activated carbon prefilter was installed, the system performance was improved considerably, so a much better compliance with legal constraints was reached. After different shutdowns in the factory, the period to recover the previous performance of the biotrickling reactor was minimal. A weekend dehydration strategy was developed and implemented to control the pressure drop associated with excessive biomass accumulation.

Sustainable Manufacturing and Design: Concepts, Practices and Needs

“…Many investigations have been carried out for wood furniture manufacturing of the associated environmental impacts [70][71][72], especially those associated with volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions [73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]. In this case study, measures to improve the sustainability of office partition manufacturing by reducing VOC emissions are examined, based on two previous investigations by one of the authors [81,82].…”

UV photocatalytic oxidation of paint solvent compounds in air using an annular TiO2-supported reactor

“…The air was polluted using three target organic compounds previously reported as representative of VOCs in paints, 7 namely n-butyl acetate, toluene and m-xylene as sole contaminants, and as a 2 : 1:1 wt mixture, simulating an industrial emission.…”

“…n-butyl acetate) components. 6,7 Nevertheless, despite the fact that gas-solid photocatalysis seems to be a promising technique for VOC removal from air, in particular for low concentrations of contaminants, this technique is far from being mature for industrial applications, 3 and some aspects, related to cost, reactor design and performance in the treatment of industrial sources, have to be overcome.…”

Microbial community analysis in biotrickling filters treating isopropanol air emissions

“…The biofilm is developed on the packing surface, the microbial community being essential for the successful performance of the process. The effectiveness of the BTF process has been studied from the laboratory to the industrial scale treating aromatic and oxygenated compounds [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, there is little an IL of 342 g m -3 h -1 using a downward flow biofilter [15].…”