To select the best available packing material for malodorous organic gases such as toluene and benzene, biofilter performance was compared in biofilters employed different packing materials including porous ceramic (celite), Jeju scoria (lava), a mixture of granular activated carbon (GAC) and celite (GAC/celite), and cubic polyurethane foam (PU). A toluene-degrading bacterium, Stenotrophomonas ...

A technique is presented that can be used to estimate the changes in physical structure in a natural biofilter packing medium, such as compost, over time. The technique applies information from tracer studies, grain size distribution, and pressure drop analysis to a model that estimates the number of channels, average channel diameter, number of particles, and specific surface area of the mediu...

The use of an organic solvent can allow to increase the mass transfer, and thereby biodegradation, of hydrophobic gaseous pollutants. The biodegradation of hexane by a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain was thus optimized in a two phase partitioning bioreactor (TPPB). Silicone oil was first selected among various organic solvents based on its biocompatibility and resistance to P. aeruginosa and its ...

The removal of xylene vapors was studied in a biofilter packed with a new hybrid (scoria/compost) packing material at various inlet loads (IL) and empty bed residence times (EBRT) of 90, 60, and 40s. The best performance was observed for EBRT of 90s, where a removal efficiency of 98% was obtained under steady state condition for inlet xylene concentration of 1.34 g m(-3), while a maximum elimin...

In this project, an AromaScan A32S electronic nose and a human panel at the Duke Taste and Smell Lab were used to evaluate the effectiveness of biofilters in reducing the malodors in the exhaust air from swine confinement facilities. Three experiments are reported: 1) detection threshold tests for the electronic nose and human panel for a significant component of swine slurry – acetic acid, 2) ...

Sterile peat used as biofilter medium, was amended with four different concentrations of a nutrient solution, inoculated with a toluene-utilizing consortium. Samples were incubated over 120 days in closed environments microcosms with water vapor and toluene saturation to emulate the conditions prevailing in biofilters. An improvement on toluene consumption rates, associated with microbial growt...

The UASB reactor (35 degrees C) was quite efficient for removal of bulk COD (62-67%) even for such high strength and recalcitrant wastewater as the cultivation medium from the first separation process of baker'syeasts (the average organic loading rates varied from 3.7 to 10.3 g COD/l/d). The aerobic-anoxic biofilter (20 degrees C) can be used for removal of remaining BOD and ammonia from strong...

A novel alum sludge-based odor-gas aerated vertical flow biofilter (Al-OAF) was developed, which aims to removal the pollutants in wastewater and simultaneously eliminate H2S generated from treatment facility. Three lab-scale parallel columns were operated batch model while intermittently with 200 ppm (Al-OAF), air (Al-AF) unaerated (Al-F, as blank), respectively. The effluent concentration Al-...

Reducing the pressure drop in biofilters is important for reduction of energy consumption these devices. Usually, increases with time due to biomass growth within packing material. The aim this study was evaluate aerodynamic processes a laboratory-scale wavy lamellar (WL) plate-type biofilter equipped capillary system humidifying material designed consisted polymer plates (WPP) vertically arran...

Lab scale studies were conducted to evaluate the performance of two simultaneously operated immobilized cell biofilters (ICBs) for removing hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) from gas phase. The removal efficiencies (REs) of the biofilter treating H2S varied from 50 to 100% at inlet loading rates (ILRs) varying up to 13 g H2S/m(3) ·h, while the NH3 biofilter showed REs ranging from 60 to...