• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.136-143
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• 2013

In this study, both transient behaviors of a biofilter system with improved design and a conventional biofilter were observed to perform the treatment of waste air containing malodor and volatile organic compound (VOC). Their behaviors of removal efficiency and treated concentration of malodor and VOC were compared each other. During 1st~7th stages of improved biofilter system operation it was observed that the order of treated ethanol concentration at each sampling port was switched due to the difference of microbe-population-distribution in spite of the difference of biofilter effective height. However, at 8th stage of its operation, the order of treated ethanol concentration at each sampling port was consistent to the order of biofilter effective height at each sampling port. The same was applied to the case of hydrogen sulfide, even though the difference of switched treated-hydrogen sulfide-concentrations was less than that of switched treated-ethanol-concentrations. The ethanol-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was ca. 96%, which was greater by 2% than that of the conventional biofilter. The transient behavior of treated hydrogen sulfide concentration of both biofilters were similar to each other. However, the concentration of hydrogen sulfide treated by the biofilter system with improved design was observed lower than that by the conventional biofilter. The hydrogen sulfide-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was higher by ca. 2% than that of the conventional biofilter. Therefore, the hydrogen sulfide-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was observed to be enhanced by the same as its ethanol-removal efficiency.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.155-161
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• 2012

A dynamic biofilter model was suggested to integrate the effect of biofilter-medium adsorption capacity on the removal efficiency of volatile organic compound (VOC) contained in waste air. In particular, the suggested biofilter model is composed of four components such as biofilm, gas phase, sorption volume and adsorption phase and is capable of predicting the unsteady behavior of biofilter-operation. The process-lumping model previously suggested was limited in the application for the treatment of waste air since it was derived under the assumption that the adsorbed amount of VOC equilibrated with biofilter-media would be proportional to the concentration of dissolved VOC in the sorption volume of biofilter-media. Therefore a Freundlich adsorption isotherm was integrated into a robust biofilter process-lumping model applicable to a wide range of VOC concentration. The values of model parameters related to biofilter-medium adsorption were obtained from the dynamic adsorption column experiments in the preceding article and literature survey. Furthermore a separate biofilter experiment was conducted to treat waste air containing ethanol and the experimental result was compared with the model predictions with various values of Thiele modulus (${\phi}$). The obtained value of Thiele modulus (${\phi}$) was close to 0.03.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.503-511
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• 2009

VOC mixture was fed to a trickle bed air biofilter (TBAB) with step-change in influent mixture concentrations from 50 ppmv to 1,000 ppmv, corresponding to loadings of $5.7\;g/m^3/hr$ to $114.1\;g/m^3/hr$. VOC mixture was an equimolar ratio of two aromatic VOCs, i.e., toluene and styrene, and two oxygenated VOCs, i.e., methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). The TBAB system employed backwashing as biomass control. The experimental results showed that a critical loading rate for VOC mixture removal was determined to be about $60\;g/m^3/hr$, and critical loading rates for individual VOCs in the mixture were different. Specifically, toluene content in the mixture played a major role in the biofilter overall performance. As VOC mixture was fed beyond the critical loading rate, reacclimation of the biofilter to reach the 99% removal efficiency following backwashing was delayed, which was a critical factor in the biofilter performance. In the mass balance analysis, 63.8% of the carbon equivalent in VOCs removal was used for $CO_2$ production during the experimental runs. The 82.6% nitrogen utilized in the biofilter was contributed to microbial cell synthesis. The obtained results were compared against consistently high efficient performance of TBAB for VOC mixture by employing backwashing as biomass control.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.236-241
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• 2003

산업체 발생 VOC를 효과적으로 처리하는 Biofilter 시스템을 고안하였다. 재질과 다공성이 다른 3기의 시스템으로부터 황화수소, 벤젠, 톨루엔, 크실렌의 단일성분과 복합성분계의 성능을 고찰하였다 저 pH Biofilter(pH 2-3)의 장기운전이 가능하였고 벤젠의 경우 경쟁적 저해를 나타내었으나 일정기간의 순응 이후 혼합처리시 양호한 처리능력을 보여주었다.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.85-106
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• 2004

Styrene as volatile organic compounds(VOC) has come under strict regulatory control as they cause serious health and environmental problems. Biofiltration offers a number of economical and environmental advantages over conventional technologies, such as incineration, catalytic adsorption, and chemical scrubbing. In this presentation, recent progresses on the development of lab-scale biofilter for the treatment of gas-phase styrene are reviewed, The potentials of commercialization of biofilter systems are also discussed.

• Clean Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2003

Biofiltration was successfully applied to treat a mixture of volatile organic compounds(benzene, xylene) from contaminated air stream. Immobilized Ps. oleovorans biofilter was evaluated for its value in simultaneous removal of benzene and xylene from waste air stream. The variety of operating conditions were tested to evaluate important factors such as space velocity, pH, water content, etc.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.758-766
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• 2006

A two-stage bioreactor, which consists of a biotrickling filter module and a biofilter module in series, was investigated for the enhanced treatment of a VOC mixture, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Throughout the experiments, the overall inlet loading rate was maintained at approximately $43g/m^3/hr$, but the inlet ratios of the VOCs were modified. The experimental results showed that the different ratios of the VOC mixture resulted in changes of overall removal efficiencies, elimination capacities (ECs) and microbial accumulation on the surface of each packing material. The ratio of inlet toluene to MEK at 50 : 150 was found to be most effective in terms of the overall removal efficiency, because, at this condition, MEK (i.e., the hydrophilic compound) was mostly removed in the biotrickling filter module and the following biofilter module was used to remove toluene. It was also found that when the inlet loading rate of the VOC mixture was serially increased stepwise within short-term periods, the ECs for toluene dropped significantly but the ECs for MEK increased at the ratio of the VOC mixture. These results implied that substrate interaction and/or substrate preferable utilization might have an effect on the biological removal of each compound in the two-stage bioreactor; therefore, the bioreactor should be operated in the condition where the substrate interaction could be minimized in order to maximize overall performance of the two-stage bioreactor.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.115-120
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• 2002

Biofiltration is a bioprocess treating volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in order to convert the VOCs to harmless products. This review on biofiltration is intended to provide an engineering concept such as removal efficiency, maximum load, elimination capacity and so on. Besides, modeling concept of biofilter is also supplied for designing biofilter system. Quantitative data generated in our research group is shown to explain the engineering concept as well as the modeling idea.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.501-506
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• 2000

A bench-scale air biofilter was evaluated for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from a gas stream. Compost and peat were used as the biological attachment media. Biofilter operating parameters such as incoming VOCs concentrations, temperature, and packing materials were examined. After 26 days of acclimation periods, at 25$^{\circ}C$ and 45$^{\circ}C$, the biofilter removed more than 90% of 30 to 72 mg/㎥ of total VOC. After 40 days of operation, the concentrations of isoprene, toluene, and m-xylene were reduced to 96∼99, 91∼93, and 91∼93% of the original concentrations. VOC removal efficiency was not affected by the temperature. The medium pH was maintained near neutral (pH 6.5∼7.1). After 37 days of operation, the total bacteria count in the biofilter media increased to 1.12${\times}$10(sup)8 cells/g of medium.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.751-762
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• 2015

This study was performed to investigate the stability of soil moisture in controlling air ventilation rate within a horizontal biofilter, and to compare removal efficiency (RE) of indoor air pollutants including fine dust, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and formaldehyde (HCHO), depending on whether dieffenbachias (Diffenbachia amoena) were planted in the biofilter. The relative humidity, air temperature, and soil moisture contents showed stable values, regardless of the presence of D. amoena, and the plants grew normally in the biofilter. REs for number of fine dust particles (PM10 and PM2.5) within the biofilter filled with only soil were at least 30% and 2%, respectively. REs for number of fine dust particles (PM10 and PM2.5) within the biofilter including the plants were above 40% and 4%, respectively. RE for fine dust (PM10) weight was above 4% and 20%, respectively, in the biofilter containing only soil or soil together with plants. In the case of the biofilter filled with only soil, REs for xylene, ethylbenzene, toluene or total VOC (T-VOC) were each more than 63%; however, REs for benzene and formaldehyde (HCHO) were above 22% and 38%, respectively. In the biofilter with the plants, REs for xylene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and T-VOC were each above 72%, and REs for benzene and HCHO were above 39%. Thus, RE of the biofilter integrated with plants was found to be higher for volatile organic compounds than for fine dust. Hence, the biofilter was very effective for indoor air quality improvement and the effect was higher when integrated with plants.