• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2003

Biological methods are frequently used for treatment of contaminated air, containing volatile organic compounds and odor compounds in low concentrations and high flow rate of air streams. For more than 20 years. biofilter has been recognized as a cost effective technology for the purification of contaminated air. Most commercial applications before 1990 were for control of odors. In the past decades major progress has been accomplished in the development of vapor phase bioreactor. in particular biotrickling filers. Biotrickling filters are more complex than biofilters. but are usually more effective, especially for the treatment of compounds which are difficult to degrade or compounds that generate acidic by-products. While the level of understanding of biotrickling filtration process for VOCs still remains limited. the evidence success of biotreatment of VOC in air resulted in pursuing active research. This paper presents fundamental and practical aspert of VOCs treatment from air in biotrickling filter. Special emphasis is given to the operating parameters and the factors influencing performance for biotrickling filter.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.573-580
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• 2005

This study was to investigate the removal characteristics of toluene in a gas stream by using a biotrickling filter packed with zeolite-contained polyethylene media. The specific surface area and the void fraction of the media were $500\;m^2/m^3$ and 82%. The surface roughness of the media was higher than that of pure polyethylene media. The toluene removal efficiency decreased with increasing the inlet toluene concentration and gas flow rate. The maximum elimination capacity of toluene in the biotrickling filter was $64\;g/m^3{\cdot}hr$. During 200 days operation, toluene removal efficiency was maintained from 90% to 98% until 167 days, hereafter, it was rapidly reduced with a rise in pressure drop due to an excess proliferation of biomass on the media. Pressure drop and removal capability of the biotrickling filter was fully recovered after backwashing.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.489-495
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• 2015

A fundamental mathematical model for mass transfer processes has been used to understand the air pollution control process in biotrickling filtration and to evaluate the mass transfer coefficients of gas/liquid (trickling liquid), gas/solid (biomass) and liquid/solid based upon experimental results and mathematical model calculations for selected operating conditions. The mass transfer models for the utilization of the steady-state mass balance for gas/liquid, and dynamic mass balance model for gas/solid & liquid/solid in biotrickling filters were established and discussed. The mass transfer model considered the reactor to comprise finite sections, for each of which dynamic mass balances for gas/solid and liquid/solid system were solved by numerical analysis code (numerical iteration). To determine the mass transfer coefficients ($K_La$) of gas/liquid, gas/solid & liquid/solid in a biotrickling filter, the calculation results based upon mass balance equation was optimized to coincide with the experimental results for the selected operating conditions. Finally, this study contributed the development of experimental methods and discussed the mathematical model to determine the mass transfer coefficients in a biotrickling filtration for air pollution control.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.474-484
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• 2005

Biological treatment is a promising alternative to conventional air pollution control methods. Bioreactors for air pollution control have found most of their success in the treatment of dilute and high flow waste air streams containing volatile organic compounds and odor compounds. They offer several advantages over traditional technologies such as incineration or adsorption. These include lower treatment costs, absence of formation of secondary pollutants, no spent chemicals, low energy demand and low temperature treatment. The most widely used bioreactor for air pollution control is biofilter, but it has several limitations. In the past years major progress has been accomplished in the development of vapor phase bioreactor, in particular biotrickling filters. Biotrickling filters are more complex than biofilters, but are usually more effective, especially for the treatment of compounds which are difficult to degrade or compounds that generate acidic by-products. While the level of understanding of biotrickling filtration process for VOCs still remains limited, the evident success of biotreatment of VOC in air stimulated the pursue of acitve research. This paper presents fundamental and theoretical/practical aspect of air pollution control in biotrickling filter. Special emphasis is given to the operating parameters and the factors influencing performance for air pollution control in biotrickling filter.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.E2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2005

A novel hybrid system composed of a biotrickling filter and an activated sludge reactor was investigated under the conditions of four different SRTs (sludge retention times). The performance of the hybrid reactor was found to be directly comparable among the four different sludge ages. Discernible differences in the removal performance were observed among four different SRTs of 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. High removal efficiency was achieved by continuous circulation of activated sludge over the immobilized mixture culture, which allowed on pH control, addition of nutrients, and removal of paint VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The results also showed that the removal efficiency for a given pollutant depends on the activity of microorganisms based on the SRT. As the SRT increased gradually from 2 to 8 days, the average removal performance decreased. The highest removal rate was achieved at the SRT of 2 days at which the highest OUR (oxygen uptake rate), $6.1mg-O_2/liter-min$ was measured. Biological activity in the recycle microbes decreased to a much lower level, $3.6mg-O_2/liter-min$ at a SRT of 8 days. It is thus believed that young microorganisms were more active and more efficient for the VOCs removal of low concentrations and high flow rates. The apparent correlation of $R^2=0.996$ between the average removal efficiency and the average OUR at each SRTs suggests that VOCs degradation by young cells significantly affected the overall removal efficiency for the tested SRTs.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.482-488
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• 2015

Biological treatment is promising alternative to conventional air pollution control method. Bioreactors for air pollution control have found most of their success in the treatment of dilute and high flow waste air streams containing volatile organic compounds and odor. The studies of mass transfer in biotrickling filters for air pollution control were of importance in order to control and optimize the purification process. The objectives of this study were to develop the experimental methodologies to evaluate the mass transfer coefficients of gas/liquid(trickling liquid), gas/solid(biomass) and liquid/solid in three phase biotrickling filtration. Also, this study characterized the influence factors on mass transfer such as dynamic holdup volume, gas/liquid flow rate ratio, biomass weight in reactor and recirculation rate of trickling medium for each phase of biotrickling filter.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2007

This study developed composition-plastic media with woodchips and plastic as main materials, and examined the performance of media. Compared to the existing commercial media, the media had similar performance in removal efficiency and microbes attaching characteristic, and was evaluated that they are distinguished from economic side. Performance test of media was conducted to examine the removal capacity of toluene and hydrogen sulfide in a gas stream by using a lab-scale biotrickling filter systems packed with them. At a volumetric loading of $1.5\;m^3/hr$ with inlet concentration 260 ppm and empty bed residence time (EBRT) 42s, the toluene removal efficiency was shown over 90%, and the maximum elimination capacity of toluene in the biotrickling filter was $77g/m^3{\cdot}hr$. Effective co-treatments of $H_2S$ and Toluene were observed in the lab-scale biotrickling filters. The maximum elimination capacity of $H_2S$ was $100\;g-S/m^3{\cdot}hr$. Up to 100 ppm, the concentration of $H_2S$ did not have an effect on toluene removal efficiency, but the removal efficiency of toluene decreased with increasing inlet $H_2S$ concentration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.519-525
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• 2008

Biodegradation of toluene, styrene and hydrogen sulfide as model compounds of volatile organic compounds and odor from waste gas was investigated experimentally in a biotrickling filter. This study focussed on the description of experimental results with regard to operating conditions. The effect of varying $H_2S$ load rate and inlet concentration was investigated under autotropic and mixotropic environmental conditions. The $H_2S$ removal efficiencies of greater than 99% were achieved at $H_2S$ loads below $10g/m^3{\cdot}hr$ for each environment. It was observed that the maximum elimination capacity of mixotrophic filter was achieved a little greater than the one of autotrophic filter. The biofiltration of toluene and styrene in trickling bed was examined under different gas flow rates, load rates, and inlet concentrations. Below $40g/m^3{\cdot}hr$ of toluene loading, the elimination capacity and loading were identical and it was completely destroyed. In high loading of toluene, the biotrickling filter was operated at its maximum elimination capacity. In the inlet concentration of 0.2, 0.5, and $1.0g/m^3$, the maximum elimination capacity of toluene showed 40, 45, and $60g/m^3{\cdot}hr$, respectively. After a short adaptation period, it was demonstrated that the results of styrene in originally toluene adapted bioreactor was similar with the ones of toluene. However, the performance of filer for styrene is generally a little lower than for toluene. The operating conditions (including liquid flow rate etc.) allowing the highest removal efficiency should be determined experimentally for each specific case.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.191-193
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• 2004