• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.665-674
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• 2015

The final goal of this research is to develop a botanical biofiltration system, which combines green interior, biofiltering, and automatic irrigation, which can purify indoor air pollutants according to indoor space and the size of biofilter. The biofilter used in this experiment was designed as an integral form of water metering pump, water tank, blower, humidifier, and multi-level planting space in order to be more suitable for indoor space utilization. This study was performed to compare indoor air quality between the space adjacent to a botanical biofilter and the space away from the biofilter (control) without generation of artificial indoor air pollutants, and to evaluate plant growth depending on multiple floors within the biofilter. Each concentration of indoor air pollutants such as TVOCs, monoxide, and dioxide in the space treated with the biofilter was lower than that of control. Dracaena sanderiana ‘Vitoria’ and Epipremnum aureum ‘N Joy’ also showed normal growth responses regardless of multiple floors within the biofilter. Hence, it was confirmed that the wall-typed botanical biofilter suitable for indoor plants was effective for indoor air purification.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.70-76
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• 2001

Proper design and improvement of the biofiltration process depend upon quantitative understanding of the kinetic behavior in the biofilter. This study was conducted to evaluate kinetics of biofiltration of gasoline vapor. Filling material of the biofilter was compost. Gas inlet concentration ranged from about $300mg/m^3$ to $7,000mg/m^3$. Gas velocities were 6m/hr and 15m/hr, respectively. At 6m/hr gas velocity, about 60% of gasoline TPH below $3,000mg/m^3$ was removed in the lower quarter part of the biofilter. First order kinetics described well the degradation rate of gasoline TPH with high correlation. First order kinetic removal constant at the gas velocity of 6m/hr was higher than that of 15m/hr from about $300mg/m^3$ to $7,000mg/m^3$. When the inlet concentration was over $3,000mg/m^3$, first order kinetic removal constant at the gas velocity of 6m/hr was over twice that at 15m/hr. In order to obtain over 80% of removal efficiency, gasoline vapor should be injected into the biofilter at concentration below about $2,000mg/m^3$, 100cm filling height and the gas velocity of 6m/hr.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.469-473
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• 2000

We studied the removal of toluene vapors in a lab-scale biofiter. Biofiltration was performed in a column fed in a downflow manner with contaminated air at ambient conditions. The column was packed with a mixture of peat and calstone(5:3 vol. Ratio), which was inoculated with microbes of selected stains(Pseudomonas putida type A). The microorganisms were immobilized on the filter media and biofilms were formed. The fiofilter was operated at various inlet toluene concentrations for days, and treated up to a maximum elimination capacity of $20 g/m^3hr$ at an inlet load of $30 g/m^3hr$, which corresponds to removal efficiencies in the range 20∼90% and a gas retention time of 1 to 2 min. The pressure drop was almost negligible over the biofilter columns, amounting to only $1.062 cmH_2O/m$ and appreciably smaller than other studies. The effects of operating conditions such as flow rate, inlet toluene concentration and moisture content on the performance of the biofilter were sequentially investigated.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2002

Real sized open type biofilter system was manufactured to control the odor generated from the agitated composting system which composted swine manure and sawdust mixtures. The aim of this research was to develop a biofilter system using matured compost and to evaluate the performance of the biofilter system. Average ammonia reduction rate through the biofilter was 84% during about two month period of composting. The maximum ammonia concentration after filtering was 45ppm lower than allowable value of 50ppm. It was concluded that compost can be used as a biofilter materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.347-350
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• 2002

The petrochemical products can cause soil and groundwater contamination during their transportation and the use of the products, and while being contained in underground storage tanks(USTs) throughout the leakage. To treat the contaminated soil, the bioventing method is suitable for the remediation of semi-volatile compounds, such as diesel and kerosene. Biofiltration is one of possible method to treat the off-gas produced in the process of the bioventing. This study is related to the usage, effectiveness of treatment, and feasibility of two types of biofilter system made of ceramic-compost and polymer respectively to treat diesel VOCs at constant retention time of 20 sec. Compost biofilter showed the average removal efficiency of 73 % when the inlet concentration increased to 20 ppmv. Increased the inlet concentration decreased the microbial activities as well as the removal efficiency. On the contrary, the removal efficiency of the polyurethane biofilter was maintained at 88 % at the inlet concentration of 13 ppmv during ten days and was obtained to 80 % at the inlet concentration of 30 ppmv in spite of the drop of the efficiency in the sudden increase of the inlet concentration. At the beginning of the experiment it showed low removal efficiency at low inlet concentration due to the low microbial activity, however, as experiments proceed the removal efficiency could be obtained more than 80% at high inlet concentration.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.265-276
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• 2007

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effect of media on the performance of biofilters. Two types of experiments were carried out in this study. The first type of experiment used a biofilter with the media composed of three different packing materials of compost, peatmoss and GAC(granular activated carbon), whereas the second type used a biofilter with the media composed of compost only. It was found from the two experiments that the biofilter composed of compost, peatmoss and GAC showed better performance than the one composed of compost only with the higher toluene removal efficiency, lower pressure drop, and more uniform media moisture content. In particular, no appreciable media compression occurred for the biofilter composed of compost, peatmoss and GAC, whereas significant media compression took place in the biofilter composed of compost only. As suggested by the other researchers, it is likely that GAC may be responsible for the higher toluene removal efficiency in the case of the biofilter composed of mixed media especially for the early stage of biofiltration due to its adsorption capability of toluene of such high concentration as 300 ppm. It was also regarded that GAC may playa major role in maintaining lower media pressure drop in the case of the mixed media than the media with compost only because of its mechanical strength resisting to the compression. Nonetheless, further refined experiments may need to draw more accurate conclusion. The results of the additional test run using the same mixed media showed that the biofilter system using the mixed media can be consistently operated for more than 100 days very stably despite sudden change in operating conditions of temperature and flow rate.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.88-94
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• 1998

This study was investigated the application of biofiltration using cometabolic process to remediate gaseous toluene that are highly recalcitrant to adsorption, absorption and biodegradation. The investigation was conducted using specially built steel columns packed with granular activated carbon for removal of toluene and G.A.C was also coated with Pseudomonas putida microorganisms by addition of KH$_{2}$PO$_{4}$. The biofilter unit was operated in the condition of dry and 27.5% moisture content at gas loading rate of 12.5 l/min. Gaseous toluene taken from tedlar bag was analyzed by the use of G.C. equipped with F.I.D. detector. The removal efficiency of gaseous toluene was 85% at average inlet concentration of 970 ppm during dry operating condition. For gaseous toluene, 91% removal efficient was obtained at the filter material with moisture content and 97% removal efficiency was obtained with Pseudomonas putida microorganisms at gas loading rate of 12.5 l/min.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.546-555
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• 2014

The final aim of this study is to develop a biofiltration system integrated with plant vegetation for improving indoor air quality effectively depending on indoor space and characteristics. However, to approach this final goal, several requirements such as constant pressure drops (PDs) and soil moisture contents (SMCs), which influence the capacity design for a proper ventilation rate of biofiltration system, should be satisfied. Thus, this fundamental experiment was carried out to adjust a proper wind speed and to ensure a stabilization of initial SMCs within biofilter for uniform distribution of SMCs and PDs, and for normal plant growth, especially avoiding root stress by wind. Therefore, we designed horizontal biofliter models and manufactured them, and then calculated the ventilation rate, air residence time, and air-liquid ration based on the biofilter depending on three levels of wind speed (1, 2, and $3cm{\cdot}s^{-1}$). The relative humidity (RH) and PD of the humidified air coming out through the soil within the biofilter, and SMC of the soil and plant growth parameters of lettuce and duffy fern grown within biofilter were measured depending on the three levels of wind speed. As a result of wind speed test, $3{\cdot}sec^{-1}$ was suitable to keep up a proper RH, SMC, and plant growth. Thus, the next experiment was set up to be two levels of initial SMCs (low and high initial SMC, 18.5 and 28.7%) within each biofilter operated and a non-biofiltered control (initial SMC, 29.7%) on the same wind speed ($3cm{\cdot}sec^{-1}$), and measured on the RH and PD of the air coming out through the soil within the biofilter, and SMC of the soil and plant growth parameters of Humata tyermani grown within biofilter. This result was similar to the first results on RHs, SMCs, and PDs keeping up with constant levels, and three SMCs did not show any significant difference on plant growth parameters. However, two biofiltered SMCs enhanced dry weights of the plants slightly than non-biofiltered SMC. Thus, the stability of this biofiler system keeping up major physical factors (SMC and PD) deserved to be adopted for designing an advanced integrated biofilter model in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2005

This study was conducted to evaluate the biofiltration treatment characteristic for benzene vapor gas. Compost and calcium silicate porous material were used as biofilter fillers. Gas velocity and empty bed retention time were 15 m/hr and 4 min, respectively. Benzene gas removal efficiency of P-Bio (calcium silicate porous material with inoculation) was the highest and maintained in over 98%. After shock input of benzene gas, the removal efficiency of P-Bio biofilter was recovered within 2 days, while 5 days were taken in CP-Bio (compost + calcium silicate porous material mixture with inoculation) and CP (compost + calcium silicate porous material mixture without inoculation) biofilters. The removal efficiency of P-Bio biofilter was near 100% in the loading rate of <$85g/m^3$(filling material)/hr, It was shown that the maximum elimination capacities of P-Bio, CP-Bio, and CP biofilters were 95, 69, and $66\;g/m^3$(filling material)/hr, respectively. Microbial number of P-Bio, which the number was the lowest at start-up, was 3 orders increased on operational day 48. $CO_2$ was generated greatly in order of P-Bio, CP-Bio, and CP biofilters.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.18 no.E3
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• pp.165-174
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• 2002

A dual -column biofilter system with two different composts was used to investigate the macro-kinetics of dim-ethyl disulfide (DMDS) degradation. The biofilter columns were filled with compost mixtures up to one meter, The gas How rate and DMDS concentration to the biofilters were varied to study their effect on the removal characteris-tics of DMDS. It was found that the biodegradation of DMDS was governed by zero-order reaction -limited macro-kinetics for inlet DMDS concentrations between 10 and 55 ppmv. The overall average zero-order kinetic coeffi-cient for DMDS removal by compost was 0.50 ($\pm$0.1) ppm/sec for both compost mixtures studied. Variations in individual kinetic coefficients were observed due to varying environmental conditions, such as pH and temperature. The kinetic coefficients determined are specific to the system discussed in this work. During high acidity conditions in the filter beds, methyl mercaptan (MM) was observed in the gas samples collected. Appearance of MM was pro-bably due to decreased microbial activity in the lower portions of the biofilter. Considering the neutral pH range required and the presence of methyl mercaptan, it is likely that the microorganisms present in the biofilters used in this research are similar to the T. thioparus (strain E6) species.