Biodegradation of a Ternary Mixture of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic VOCs in Trickle Bed Air Biofilters

Zehraoui, Abderrahman; Wendell, David; Sorial, George A.

Biodegradation of a Ternary Mixture of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic VOCs in Trickle Bed Air Biofilters

2014

Zehraoui, Abderrahman | Wendell, David | Sorial, George A.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the degradation of a ternary mixture of n-hexane, benzene, and methanol fed to two Trickle Bed Air Biofilters (TBABs) designated as “A” and “B”. Both TBABs were loaded with pelletized diatomaceous earth support media and run at an empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 120 s. TBABs “A” and “B” were operated at pH 4 and fed with n-hexane:benzene:methanol (CH:CB:CM) concentrations ratios of 1:3:10 and 1:3:6.6, respectively under different loading rates. The influent total loading rates varied from 39.2 to 117.7 g/m³h and from 32 to 96.4 g/m³h for TBABs “A” and “B”, respectively. In both TBABs, methanol and benzene were the most eliminated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), while the removal of n-hexane was controlled by the VOCs ratios. Higher removal efficiencies were obtained for the VOCs ratio of 1:3:6.6 corresponding to a total VOCs load of 96.4 g/m³h. The addition of VOCs mixture to the TBABs resulted in change of the fungi community within the TBABs as compared to the fungi community when the TBABs were previously receiving only n-hexane as a sole substrate.

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