Treatment of odorous volatile fatty acids using a biotrickling filter

Photocatalytic degradation of H2S in the gas-phase using a continuous flow reactor coated with TiO2-based acrylic paint

For the photocatalytic degradation of the hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) in the gas-phase it was developed a rectangular reactor, coated with acrylic paint supported on fiber cement material. The surface formed by the paint coverage was characterized structural and morphologically by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray and X-ray diffraction analysis. The flow rate and the inlet concentration of H₂S were evaluated as operational performance parameters of the reactor. Removal efficiencies of up to 94% were obtained at a flow rate of 2 L min^-1 (residence time of 115 s) and inlet concentration of 31 ppm of H₂S. In addition, the H₂S degradation kinetics was modelled according to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model for the inlet concentrations of 8-23 ppm of H₂S. The results suggest that flow rate has a more important influence on photocatalytic degradation than the inlet concentration. It is assumed that H₂S has been oxidized to SO42- , a condition that led to a deactivation of the photocatalyst after 193 min of semi-continuous use.

Simultaneous biofiltration of BTEX and Hg° from a petrochemical waste stream

A biofiltration system was developed to treat benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) and Hg° vapour from a petrochemical waste stream during overhaul maintenance. The biofilter compost bed was inoculated with a microbial consortium provided by a petrochemical wastewater treatment plant. The effect of the a BTEX concentration (192.6-973.8 g/m³h) and empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 20-100 s were studied under the conditions of steady state, transient, shock BTEX-loading, and off-restart. The findings revealed that during a biofilter start-up, an increase in the influent BTEX concentration to around 334.3 g/m³h did not notably affect the biofiltration function at an EBRT of 100 s, and the removal efficiency was higher than 98%. Further, the low EBRT of 60 s did not have adverse effects on the BTEX and Hg° biofiltration (the removal efficiency in both was >93%). For the biofiltration system, the BTEX and Hg° critical attenuation capacity were obtained as 663 g_BTEX/m³h and 12.6 g_Hg°/m³h respectively. A maximum attenuation capacity of 774.5 g_BTEX/m³h was achieved in the biofilter when the BTEX loading rate was 973.8 g_BTEX/m³h. The parameters of k_m and r_max of the Michaelis-Menten kinetic model were obtained as 0.099 g/m³ and 0.578 g/m³min respectively. Both BTEX and mercury vapours were completely mass balanced during a continuous biofiltration test. In general, the developed treatment system exhibited a good performance in the treatment of the BTEX stream containing Hg° vapour in the off-gas of a petrochemical company.

Biofiltration technology for the removal of toluene from polluted air using Streptomyces griseus

Biofiltration technology has been recognized as a promising biotechnology for treating the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in polluted air. This study aims to investigate the performance of a biofiltration system of Streptomyces griseus sp. DSM-40759 immobilized on activated carbon (PICA S23) towards the adsorption and degradation of toluene vapour as well as to regenerate the activated carbon in situ. The batch studies were performed using nutrient agar medium and basal salt medium (BSM) for microbial growth. Initially the pre-cultures were incubated at a temperature of 28°C on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm. After two days, the strain S. griseus DSM-40759 was immobilized on a known weight of activated carbon (12 g). The results of biofilter performance showed three different stages with a quick adsorption phase with approximately 95% of toluene removal after 70 min, a slow biotransformation phase by immobilized cells. In the later, the removal efficiency decreased significantly with the extension of time and reached 60% during this stage. Moreover, a final quick removal phase by the immobilized cells had an average removal efficiency of toluene around 95% after 500 min. The toluene degradation was found to be more than 84% after the second cycle and the biofilter was still capable of removing additional toluene. Thus, the results demonstrated the feasibility and reusability of a new biofilter system for toluene removal as well as extending the activated carbon's capacity and this could be a potential solution to reuse the activated carbon in industrial application.

Odor control in lagoons

Lagoons are widely used in rural area for wastewater treatment; however, the odor problem has hampered its application. The root of odor emission from lagoons varies from one to another. The key of controlling the odor is to find out the cause and accordingly provide strategies. Various physical, chemical, and biological methods have been reported and applied for odor control. Physical technologies such as masking, capturing and sorption are often employed to mitigate the pressure from compliant while not to cut off the problem. Chemical technologies which act rapidly and efficiently in odor control, utilize chemicals to damage the odorant production root or convert odorant to odorless substances. Biological methods such as aeration, biocover and biofiltration control the odor by enhancing aerobic condition or developing methanogens in lagoon, and biologically decomposing the odorants. Comparing to physical and chemical methods, biological methods are more feasible.

Performance of double-layer biofilter packed with coal fly ash ceramic granules in treating highly polluted river water

To improve trickling filters' denitrification efficiency, a biofilter with a trickling upper layer and a submerged lower layer was developed and applied in treating highly polluted river water. It was packed with porous coal fly ash ceramic granules. Its start-up characteristics, influence of hydraulic loading rates (HLR), carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio and filter depth on pollutants removal were investigated. The results indicated this biofilter was started quickly in 16 days with river sediment as inoculum. Alternating nitrification and denitrification were achieved when water flowed downwards. COD and nitrogen were mainly removed in the upper layer and the lower layer, respectively. With HLR of 4.0-5.0m(3)/(m(2)d), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium (NH(4)(+)-N) and total nitrogen (TN) in the effluent were below 50, 5 and 15 mg/L, respectively. This biofilter removed more than 80% of COD, 85% of NH(4)(+)-N and 60% of TN with C/N ratios ranging from 6 to 10.

Waste gas biofiltration: advances and limitations of current approaches in microbiology

As confidence in gas biofiltration efficacy grows, ever more complex malodorant and toxic molecules are ameliorated. In parallel, for many countries, emission control legislation becomes increasingly stringent to accommodate both public health and climate change imperatives. Effective gas biofiltration in biofilters and biotrickling filters depends on three key bioreactor variables: the support medium; gas molecule solubilization; and the catabolic population. Organic and inorganic support media, singly or in combination, have been employed and their key criteria are considered by critical appraisal of one, char. Catabolic species have included fungal and bacterial monocultures and, to a lesser extent, microbial communities. In the absence of organic support medium (soil, compost, sewage sludge, etc.) inoculum provision, a targeted enrichment and isolation program must be undertaken followed, possibly, by culture efficacy improvement. Microbial community process enhancement can then be gained by comprehensive characterization of the culturable and total populations. For all species, support medium attachment is critical and this is considered prior to filtration optimization by water content, pH, temperature, loadings, and nutrients manipulation. Finally, to negate discharge of fungal spores, and/or archaeal and/or bacterial cells, capture/destruction technologies are required to enable exploitation of the mineralization product CO(2).

Efficient bio-deodorization of aniline vapor in a biotrickling filter: metabolic mineralization and bacterial community analysis

A biotrickling filter inoculated with commercial mixed microorganisms B350 was employed to treat N-containing odorous vapor - aniline. Results indicated no aniline could be detected when empty bed residence time (EBRT) was larger than 110s at inlet concentration of 0.30 g m(-3). The variation of inlet concentration did not change removal efficiencies when concentration is less than 0.21 g m(-3) at fixed EBRT 110s. Biodegradation mechanism of aniline was tentatively proposed based on identified intermediates and predicted biodegradation pathway as well as final mineralized products. Aniline was firstly biodegraded to catechol, and then to levulinic acid and subsequently to succinic acid. Finally, about 62% aniline carbon was completely mineralized to CO(2), while about 91% aniline nitrogen was converted into ammonia and nitrate. Bacterial community in biotrickling filter was found that at least seven bands microbes were identified for high efficiencies of bioreactor at stable state. In all, biotrickling filter seeded with B350 would be a better choice for the purification odorous gas containing high concentration aniline.

Treatment of gaseous alpha-pinene by a combined system containing photo oxidation and aerobic biotrickling filtration

Biofiltration of hydrophobic and/or recalcitrant volatile pollutants is intrinsically limited. In the present study, a combined ultraviolet-biotrickling filter (UV-BTF) was developed to improve the removal of these compounds, and a single BTF as the control was operated under the same conditions. The experimental results showed that the UV-BTF provided higher removal efficiencies than the single BTF at an inlet concentration range of 600-1500 mg m(-3) under shorter residence times. The maximum elimination capacities (ECs) obtained were 94.2 mg m(-3)h(-1) and 44 mg m(-3)h(-1) in the combined UV-BTF and single BTF, respectively. The mass ratio of carbon dioxide produced to α-pinene removed in the UV-BTF was approximately 2.74, which was much higher than that of the single BTF (1.99). Polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) analysis indicated that there was more complicated microbial community in the UV-BTF than that in the single BTF. In addition, we investigated the effect of starvation or stagnation on re-acclimation and removal performance from an engineering standpoint. The results showed that the combined UV-BTF could deal with fluctuating conditions or periods without any flow (air or liquid) supply much better than the single BTF.

Co-treatment of single, binary and ternary mixture gas of ethanethiol, dimethyl disulfide and thioanisole in a biotrickling filter seeded with Lysinibacillus sphaericus RG-1

The work reports the aerobic co-treatment characteristics of single, binary and ternary mixture gas of ethanethiol, dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and thioanisole in a biotrickling filter seeded with Lysinibacillus sphaericus RG-1. 100% removal efficiency (RE) was achieved for sole ethanethiol, DMDS and thioanisole at inlet concentration below 1.05, 0.81 and 0.33 mg/L, respectively, at empty bed resident time 110 s. In addition, 100% RE was also obtained with binary ethanethiol and DMDS (1:1) and ternary ethanethiol, DMDS and thioanisole (3:2:1). Michaelis-Menten equation was modified to incorporate the plug flow behavior of the bioreactor. The maximum removal rate (V(max)) was calculated as 56.18, 57.14 and 22.78 g/m(3)/h for sole ethanethiol, DMDS and thioanisole, respectively, while the V(max) was 41.84 and 14.56 g/m(3)/h for DMDS and thioanisole in binary and ternary systems, respectively. Overall, these suggest that not only sole but also binary and ternary mixture can be efficiently removed in this system.

Leachate treatment using a demonstration aged refuse biofilter

Approximately 7000 m3 of aged refuse (AR) with a placement of over eight years was excavated from Shanghai Refuse Landfill, the largest landfill in China, and used for the construction of a two-stage bioreactor (AR biofilter) media for the biological treatment of 100 m3 of refuse landfill leachate. It was found that over 64% of COD, 96.9%-99.8% of NH4+ -N, and 95.8%-99.8% of BOD5 could be removed by the AR biofilter, when the leachate with initial COD, BOD5, and NH4+ -N concentrations were 986-4128 mg/L, 264-959 mg/L, and 538-1583 mg/L, respectively. The corresponding concentrations in the effluent were reduced to below 300-400 mg/L, 2-12 mg/L, and 10-20 mg/L, respectively. The effluent was clear and pale yellow with suspended solid below 150 mg/L and color below 150 Pt/Co degree. Meanwhile, the total nitrogen removal was only 49%-63%, indicating a relative poor denitrification capacity of AR biofilter. The effluent pH was neutral and the population of Escherichia coli was less than 10(-1) CFU/mL. Hence, it was considered that the demonstration project can work well for the effective treatment of leachate.

H2S and volatile fatty acids elimination by biofiltration: clean-up process for biogas potential use

In the present work, the main objective was to evaluate a biofiltration system for removing hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) contained in a gaseous stream from an anaerobic digestor (AD). The elimination of these compounds allowed the potential use of biogas while maintaining the methane (CH(4)) content throughout the process. The biodegradation of H(2)S was determined in the lava rock biofilter under two different empty bed residence times (EBRT). Inlet loadings lower than 200 g/m(3)h at an EBRT of 81 s yielded a complete removal, attaining an elimination capacity (EC) of 142 g/m(3)h, whereas at an EBRT of 31 s, a critical EC of 200 g/m(3)h was reached and the EC obtained exhibited a maximum value of 232 g/m(3)h. For 1500 ppmv of H(2)S, 99% removal was maintained during 90 days and complete biodegradation of VFAs was observed. A recovery of 60% as sulfate was obtained due to the constant excess of O(2) concentration in the system. Acetic and propionic acids as a sole source of carbon were also evaluated in the bioreactor at different inlet loadings (0-120 g/m(3)h) obtaining a complete removal (99%) for both. Microcosms biodegradation experiments conducted with VFAs demonstrated that acetic acid provided the highest biodegradation rate.

Emission characteristics of volatile compounds during sludges drying process

The emission characteristics of volatile compounds (VCs) during municipal sewage sludge (MSS) and paper mill sludge (PMS) drying process were investigated through experiments conducted on a lab-scale tubular drying furnace and a pilot-scale paddle dryer, respectively. The result indicated that five kinds of VCs, i.e. CO(2), NH(3), C(7)H(16) (n-heptane), volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and CH(4) were emitted during the drying process. It was found that the NH(3) and CO(2) were the primary compound released from the MSS drying process. In the case of the PMS, the VFAs and CO(2) were the main compounds released. The temperature and water content of sludge had great effects on the emission rates of NH(3), C(7)H(16), CO(2) and VFAs. The pH and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of condensate from the paddle dryer were also studied. It showed that pH and COD of condensate from MSS were much higher than that from the PMS, and that the higher COD value of the MSS condensate interrelated to the higher ammonium and sulfur content of it.

The treatment of waste air containing phenol vapors in biotrickling filter

This research aimed at investigating the biodegradation of phenol contaminated-air streams in biotrickling filter. The effect of inlet concentration (200-1000 ppmv) and empty bed contact time (EBCT) (15-60 s) were investigated under steady state, transient and shock loading, and shutdown periods. Upon rapid start up operation, inlet phenol concentrations of up to 1000 ppmv did not significantly affect the performance of the biotrickling filter at EBCT of 60 s, so that removal efficiency was well greater than 99%. In addition, the EBCT as low as 30 s did not have detrimental effects on the efficiency of the bioreactor and phenol removal was greater than 99%. Decreasing the EBCT to 15s reduced the removal efficiency to around 92%. The maximum elimination capacity obtained in the biotrickling filter was 642 g(phenol) m(-3) h(-1), where the removal efficiency was only 57%. Results from the transient loading experiments revealed that the biotrickling filter could effectively handle the variations of the inlet loads without the phenol removal capacity being significantly affected.