Interchanged Contaminants
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Interchange of contaminants

Introduction: Variations in contaminant load are common in real application. Particularly, when biofilter is assigned to the treatment of waste air for discontinuous processes (e.g., a solvent manufacturing industry continues producing a specific solvent depending on demand for a specific period of days), biofilter is exposed to a spectrum of changing contaminants.

Objectives: the impact of interchanging VOCs as dynamic feeding conditions on the biofilter performance was explored. Two aromatic compounds (toluene and styrene) and two oxygenated compounds (MEK &MIBK) were interchanged as single solute.

Conclusion and Summary: The biofilter provided high removal efficiency within the critical loading, which was defined in the non-interchanging VOC-fed biofilters.

  • The biofilter recovered easily to the 99 % removal after interchanging to oxygenated compounds, regardless of the immediately preceding compound fed to the biofilter, but for aromatic compounds, a longer reacclimation period was required.
  • The biofilter response after interchange of feed VOCs appeared to depend on the physicochemical property of feed VOCs as well as the biomass retained in the biofilter prior to interchanging the VOC.
  • Using high EBRT at the critical loading (which corresponds to high inlet concentration), problems related to oxygen limitation within the biofilm could have appeared.
  • When interchanging VOCs, die-off or depletion of stored energy or “gearing-up” of microbial community to use the new compounds (i.e., proteins and enzymes) results in the increased CO 2 production for a given VOC loading.

 

Publications and Conferences for Removal of Interchanged VOCs

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

Cai, Z., Kim, D., and Sorial, G.A., “Performance and Microbial Diversity of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter under Interchanging Contaminants,” Engineering Life Sciences, 2006, 6(1), 37-42.

Kim, D., Cai, Z., and Sorial G.A., "Impact of Interchanging VOCs on the Performance of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter", Chemical Engineering Journal, 2005, 113(2-3), 153-160.

Cai, Z., Sorial, G.A., Zhang, K., Saikaly, P., Zein, M.M., and Oerther, D.B, "Microbial Study for TBABs Treating Interchanged VOCs and their Mixtures," accepted for publication in Journal of Water, Air, and Soil Pollution Focus , August 2007.

PEER REVIEWED CONFERENCE PROCEEEDINGS

Kim, D., Cai, Z., and Sorial, G.A., “Impact of Interchanging VOCs on the Performance of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter,” in proceedings of 2004 USC-CSC-TRG Conference on Biofiltration for Air Pollution Control, Santa Monica, California, October 20-22, 2004.

Cai, Z., Kim, D., and Sorial, G.A., “Performance of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter Under Interchanging Contaminants,” in proceedings of the 1 st International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 23-26, 2005.

Cai, Z., Kim, D., Saikaly, P., Zein, M., Sorial, G.A., and Oerther, D.B., “Effect of VOCs Interchanging on Performance and Microbial Diversity in Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter,” in proceeding of 98 th A&AWA Annual Conference and Exhibition, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 21-24, 2005.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Kim, D., Cai, Z., Saikaly, P., Zein, M., Sorial, G.A., and Oerther, D.B., “Impact of Interchanging VOCs on the Performance of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter,” presented at the 2004 USC-CSC-TRG Conference on Biofiltration for Air Pollution Control, Santa Monica, California, October 20-22, 2004.

Cai, Z., Kim, D., and Sorial, G.A., “Performance of Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter Under Interchanging Contaminants,” presented at the 1 st International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, New Orleans , Louisiana , January 23-26, 2005 .

Cai, Z., Kim, D., Saikaly, P., Zein, M., Sorial, G.A., and Oerther, D.B., “Effect of VOCs Interchanging on Performance and Microbial Diversity in Trickle-Bed Air Biofilter,” presented at the 98 th A&WMA Annual Conference and Exhibition, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 21-24, 2005.

Ph.D. DISSERTATIONS

Cai, Z., "Integrated Cyclic Adsorption/Desorption Beds and Biofiltration System for Treatment of Waste Gas Streams, " Ph.D. Dissertation, 2007, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, OH, USA. (Presentation Slides)

 

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