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Journal of Environmental BiologypISSN: 0254-8704 ; eISSN: 2394-0379 ; CODEN: JEBIDP |
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Abstract - Issue Jul 2010, 31 (4) BackBiodegradation
of mono-chlorobenzene by using a trickle bed air biofilter (TBAB) Anil
1Biotechnology
(Applied Mechanics Department), Motilal Nehru
National Institute of Technology, 2Chemical
Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, ????????????????????????? 3Chemical
Engineering Department, Institute of Engineering and Technology, (Received:
Abstract: In the present
study, performance of the trickle bed air biofilter
(TBAB) for treating mono-chlorobenzene (MCB) was
evaluated for various influent volatile organic compound (VOC) loadings using
coal and mixed consortium of activated sludge as the packing material.
Microbial acclimation to MCB was achieved by exposing the system continuously
for 31 d to an average inlet MCB concentration of 0.688 g m-3 at an
empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 188 s. The TBAB achieved maximum removal
efficiency of 87% at an EBRT of 188 s for an inlet concentration of 0.681 g m-3,
which is quite significance than the values reported in the literature.
Elimination capacities of MCB increased with an increase of the influent VOC
loading, but an opposite trend was observed for the removal efficiency. The
maximum elimination capacity of the biofilter was
110.75 g m-3 hr-1 at an inlet MCB concentration of 1.47 g
m-3. The effect of starvation on the TBAB was also studied. After
starvation, the TBAB lost its ability to degrade MCB initially. However, the biofilter recovered very quickly. Evaluation of the
concentration profile along the bed height indicated that the bottom section of
TBAB has the best performance for all concentrations. By using Wani?s method of macrokinetic
determination based on simple Monod kinetics, the
maximum removal rate of MCB, rmax and saturation constant Km
was to be found as 1.304 g m-3 s-1 and 113.446 g m-3,
respectively. Key words: Trickled bed air biofilter (TBAB), Mono-chloronebzene (MCB), Empty bed residence time (EBRT),
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