Modeling Biofiltration of VOC Mixtures under Steady-State Conditions
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 123, Issue 6
Abstract
Treatment of air streams contaminated with binary volatile organic compound (VOC) mixtures in classical biofilters under steady-state conditions of operation was described with a general mathematical model. The model accounts for potential kinetic interactions among the pollutants, effects of oxygen availability on biodegradation, and biomass diversification in the filter bed. While the effects of oxygen were always taken into account, two distinct cases were considered for the experimental model validation. The first involves kinetic interactions, but no biomass differentiation, used for describing data from biofiltration of benzene/toluene mixtures. The second case assumes that each pollutant is treated by a different type of biomass. Each biomass type is assumed to form separate patches of biofilm on the solid packing material, thus kinetic interference does not occur. This model was used for describing biofiltration of ethanol/butanol mixtures. Experiments were performed with classical biofilters packed with mixtures of peat moss and perlite (2:3, volume:volume). The model equations were solved through the use of computer codes based on the fourth-order Runge-Kutta technique for the gas-phase mass balances and the method of orthogonal collocation for the concentration profiles in the biofilms. Good agreement between model predictions and experimental data was found in almost all cases. Oxygen was found to be extremely important in the case of polar VOCs (ethanol/butanol).
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Andrews, J. F.(1968). “A mathematical model for the continuous culture of microorganisms utilizing inhibitory substrates.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 10(6), 707–723.
2.
Androutsopoulou, H. (1994). “A study of the biofiltration process under shock-loading conditions,” MS thesis, New Jersey Inst. of Technol., Newark, N.J.
3.
Baltzis, B. C., and Androutsopoulou, H. (1994). “A study on the response of biofilters to shock-loading.”Presented at the 87th Annu. Meeting of the Air and Waste Mgmt. Assn., Paper No. 94-RP-115B.02, Cincinnati, Ohio.
4.
Baltzis, B. C., and Shareefdeen, Z. (1994). “Biofiltration of VOC mixtures: modeling and pilot scale experimental verification.”Presented at the 87th Annu. Meeting of the Air and Waste Mgmt. Assn., Paper No. 94-TA-260.10P, Cincinnati, Ohio.
5.
Chang, M. K., Voice, T. C., and Criddle, C. S.(1993). “Kinetics of competitive inhibition and cometabolism in the biodegradation of benzene, toluene, and p-xylene by two pseudomonas isolates.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 41(11), 1057–1065.
6.
Deshusses, M. A., Hamer, G., and Dunn, I. J.(1995a). “Behavior of biofilters for waste air biotreatment. I: Dynamic model development.”Envir. Sci. Technol., 29(4), 1048–1058.
7.
Deshusses, M. A., Hamer, G., and Dunn, I. J.(1995b). “Behavior of biofilters for waste air biotreatment. II: Experimental evaluation of a dynamic model.”Envir. Sci. Technol., 29(4), 1059–1068.
8.
Fan, L. S., Leyva-Ramos, R., Wisecarver, K. D., and Zehner, B. J.(1990). “Diffusion of phenol through a biofilm grown on activated carbon particles in a draft-tube three-phase fluidized-bed bioreactor.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 35(3), 279–286.
9.
Hodge, D. S., and Devinny, J. S.(1995). “Modeling removal of air contaminants by biofiltration.”J. Envir. Engrg., 121(1), 21–32.
10.
Leson, G., and Dharmavaram, S. (1995). “A status overview of biological air pollution control.”Presented at the 88th Annu. Meeting of the Air and Waste Mgmt. Assn., Paper No. 95-MP-9A.01, San Antonio, Tex.
11.
Monod, J. (1942). Recherches sur la croissance des cultures bacteriennes. Herman et Cie, Paris, France.
12.
Oh, Y. S., Shareefdeen, Z., Baltzis, B. C., and Bartha, R.(1994). “Interactions between benzene, toluene, and p-xylene (BTX) during their biodegradation.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 44(4), 533–538.
13.
Ottengraf, S. P. P., and van den Oever, A. H. C.(1983). “Kinetics of organic compound removal from waste gases with a biological filter.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 25(12), 3089–3102.
14.
Shareefdeen, Z., and Baltzis, B. C. (1994a). “Biological removal of hydrophobic solvent vapors from airstreams.”Advances in bioprocess engineering, E. Galindo and O. T. Ramirez, eds., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 397–404.
15.
Shareefdeen, Z., and Baltzis, B. C. (1994b). “Biofiltration of toluene vapor under steady-state and transient conditions: theory and experimental results.”Chemical Engrg. Sci., 49(24A), 4347–4360.
16.
Shareefdeen, Z., Baltzis, B. C., Oh, Y. S., and Bartha, R.(1993). “Biofiltration of methanol vapor.”Biotechnol. Bioengrg., 41(5), 512–524.
17.
Wojdyla, S. M. (1996). “Determination of physical parameters affecting biofiltration of VOCs,” MS thesis, New Jersey Inst. of Technol., Newark, N.J.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 123 • Issue 6 • June 1997
Pages: 599 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Jun 1, 1997
Published in print: Jun 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.