Effects of concentration and gas flow rate on the removal of gas-phase toluene and xylene mixture in a compost biofilter

Eldon R Rene; Natalia Sergienko; Torsha Goswami; M Estefanía López; Gopalakrishnan Kumar; Ganesh D Saratale; Perumal Venkatachalam; K Pakshirajan; T Swaminathan

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.029

Effects of concentration and gas flow rate on the removal of gas-phase toluene and xylene mixture in a compost biofilter

Bioresour Technol. 2018 Jan;248(Pt B):28-35. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.029. Epub 2017 Aug 9.

Authors

Eldon R Rene¹, Natalia Sergienko², Torsha Goswami², M Estefanía López³, Gopalakrishnan Kumar⁴, Ganesh D Saratale⁵, Perumal Venkatachalam⁶, K Pakshirajan⁷, T Swaminathan⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, Tamil Nadu, India; Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: e.raj@un-ihe.org.
² Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences, Campus da Zapateira, University of La Coruńa, Rua da Fraga, 10, E-15008 La Coruña, Spain.
⁴ Center for Materials Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁵ Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Dongguk University-Seoul, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 10326, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Periyar University, Department of Biotechnology, Plant Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology Lab, Periyar Palkalai Nagar, Salem 636 011, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁷ Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, Assam, India.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, Tamil Nadu, India.

PMID: 28844689
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.029

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the performance of a compost/ceramic bead biofilter (6:4 v/v) for the removal of gas-phase toluene and xylene at different inlet loading rates (ILR). The inlet toluene (or) xylene concentrations were varied from 0.1 to 1.5gm^-3, at gas flow rates of 0.024, 0.048 and 0.072m³h^-1, respectively, corresponding to total ILR varying between 7 and 213gm^-3h^-1. Although there was mutual inhibition, xylene removal was severely inhibited by the presence of toluene than toluene removal by the presence of xylene. The biofilter was also exposed to transient variations such as prolonged periods of shutdown (30days) and shock loads to envisage the response and recuperating ability of the biofilter. The maximum elimination capacity (EC) for toluene and xylene were 29.2 and 16.4gm^-3h^-1, respectively, at inlet loads of 53.8 and 43.7gm^-3h^-1.

Keywords: ANOVA; Biofiltration; Full factorial design; Mixture; Volatile organic compound (VOC).

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants
Biodegradation, Environmental
Composting*
Filtration
Toluene*
Xylenes*

Substances

Air Pollutants
Xylenes
Toluene