Biochemical Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, 608002, India.
Bioprocess Biosyst Eng. 2017 Dec;40(12):1801-1812. doi: 10.1007/s00449-017-1834-7. Epub 2017 Sep 4.
Petroleum oil refineries are massive emitters of risky volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Among the VOCs, toluene is taken into account as a significant pollutant. In the present study, a compost biofilter is used to treat the toluene vapor. However, an elimination capacity and removal efficiency of the biofilter was investigated for a wide range of toluene concentrations (0.29-3.8 g m) and operated for 54 days effectively. Elimination capacity of 93 g m h was recorded as maximum value at a toluene inlet concentration of 114 g m h. An elimination capacity was perpetually better at the lower section of the biofilter, and therefore, the value was around 40-60 g m h. The high removal efficiency of 97% was obtained at inlet toluene load of 60.55 g m h. Hence, the biofilm was quite sensitive to handling transient loading conditions. The pressure drop had no vital impact on the biofilter performance. An Ottengraf model was applied to all phase of biofilter operation in each of the diffusion limiting region and reaction limiting region. The parameters of the model K (75.95 g m h) and K (90.51 g m h) were obtained from diffusion and reaction limiting region severally. However, K was used to calculate the theoretical elimination capacities, and therefore, K was used to discover the biofilm thickness. By the way, the average biofilm thickness was found to be 0.98 mm from reaction limiting region.
炼油厂是大量排放风险挥发性有机化合物 (VOC) 的地方。在这些 VOC 中，甲苯被认为是一种重要的污染物。在本研究中，使用堆肥生物过滤器来处理甲苯蒸气。然而，该生物过滤器在广泛的甲苯浓度（0.29-3.8 g m）下进行了 54 天的有效运行，考察了其去除能力和去除效率。在甲苯入口浓度为 114 g m h 时，记录到 93 g m h 的最大去除能力。在生物过滤器的下部区域，去除能力始终更好，因此，该值约为 40-60 g m h。在甲苯入口负荷为 60.55 g m h 时，获得了 97%的高去除效率。因此，生物膜对处理瞬态负荷条件非常敏感。压降对生物过滤器性能没有重大影响。 Ottengraf 模型适用于生物过滤器操作的所有阶段，包括扩散限制区域和反应限制区域。模型参数 K（75.95 g m h）和 K（90.51 g m h）分别从扩散限制区域和反应限制区域获得。然而，K 用于计算理论去除能力，因此，K 用于发现生物膜厚度。顺便说一下，从反应限制区域发现平均生物膜厚度为 0.98 mm。
