Biofiltration of methane.

The on-going annual increase in global methane (CH) emissions can be largely attributed to anthropogenic activities. However, as more than half of these emissions are diffuse and possess a concentration less than 3% (v/v), physical-chemical treatments are inefficient as an abatement technology. In this regard, biotechnologies, such as biofiltration using methane-oxidizing bacteria, or methanotrophs, are a cost-effective and efficient means of combating diffuse CH emissions. In this review, a number of abiotic factors including temperature, pH, water content, packing material, empty-bed residence time, inlet gas flow rate, CH concentration, as well biotic factors, such as biomass development, are reviewed based on empirical findings on CH biofiltration studies that have been performed in the last decades.