Treatment of gaseous volatile organic compounds using a rotating biological filter

Susant Kumar Padhi; Sharad Gokhale

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.07.112

Treatment of gaseous volatile organic compounds using a rotating biological filter

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Nov;244(Pt 1):270-280. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.07.112. Epub 2017 Jul 22.

Authors

Susant Kumar Padhi¹, Sharad Gokhale²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India.
² Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India. Electronic address: sharadbg@iitg.ernet.in.

PMID: 28780260
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.07.112

Abstract

Rotating biological filter (RBF), which provides higher oxygen mass transfer has been developed for treating gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as BTEX (Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) at higher concentrations. The screening of enriched cultures has been done initially to enhance the performance of RBF for treating xylene, toluene and xylene, and BTEX at various loading rates. The removal efficiency of BTEX was maximum (82%), higher than toluene and xylene (79%), and xylene (72%). The presence of xylene enhanced the removal of toluene in the mixture. In the BTEX, toluene was found to be highly biodegradable followed by ethylbenzene, benzene and xylene. The RBF also removed nutrients from wastewater along with VOCs. The stability study of RBF showed that supply of nutrient media influenced the RBF performance more. Further, the predominant strain identified in the mixed culture was Enterobacter cloacae SP4001, responsible for biodegradation of BTEX.

Keywords: BTEX; Biodegradation; CO(2); Mixed culture; Rotating biological filter.

MeSH terms

Benzene
Benzene Derivatives
Biodegradation, Environmental*
Gases
Toluene
Volatile Organic Compounds*
Xylenes

Substances

Benzene Derivatives
Gases
Volatile Organic Compounds
Xylenes
Toluene
Benzene