• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2011

Billions of barrels of briny produced water are generated in the United States every year during oil and gas production. The first step toward recovering or reusing this water is to remove the hazardous organics dissolved in the briny produced water. Biological degradation of hazardous volatile compound could be possible regardless of salinity if they were extracted from briny water. In the current work, the effectiveness of a vapor phase biofilter to degrade the gas-phase contaminants (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, BTEX) extracted from briny produced water was evaluated. The performance of biofilter system responded well to short periods when the BTEX feed to the biofilter was discontinued. To challenge the system further, the biofilter was subjected to periodic spikes in inlet BTEX concentration as would be expected when it is coupled to a Surfactant-Modified Zeolite (SMZ) bed. Results of these experiments indicate that although the BTEX removal efficiency declined under these conditions, it stabilized at 75% overall removal even when the biofilter was provided with BTEX-contaminated air only 8 hours out of every 24 hours. Benzene removal was found to be the most sensitive to time varying loading conditions. A passive, granular activated carbon bed was effective at attenuating and normalizing the peak BTEX loadings during SMZ regeneration over a range of VOC loads. Field testing of a SMZ bed coupled with an activated carbon buffering/biofilter column verified that this system could be used to remove and ultimately biodegrade the dissolved BTEX constituents in briny produced water.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.819-827
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• 2002

Laboratory scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of a biofilter for eliminating dimethyl sulfide(DMS). A commercial compost/pine bark nugget mixture served as the biofilter material for the experiments. The gas flow rate and DMS concentration entering the filter were varied to study their effect on the biofilter efficiency. The operating parameters, such as the residence time, inlet concentration, pH, water content, and temperature, were all monitored throughout the filter operation. The kinetic dependence of the DMS removal along the column length was also studied to obtain a quantitative description of the DMS elimination. High DMS removal efficiencies(>95％) were obtained using the compost filter material seeded with activated sludge. DMS pollutant loading rates of up to 5.2 and 5.5 g-DMS/m$^3$/hr were effectively handled by the upflow and downflow biofilter columns, respectively. The macrokinetics of the DMS removal were found to be fractional-order diffusion-limited over the 9 to 25 ppm range of inlet concentrations tested. The upflow column had an average macrokinetic coefficient(K$\_$f/) of 0.0789 $\pm$ 0.0178 ppm$\^$$\sfrac{1}{2}$//sec, while the downflow column had an average coefficient of 0.0935 $\pm$ 0.0200 ppm$\^$$\sfrac{1}{2}$//sec. Shorter residence times resulted in a lower mass transfer of the pollutant from the gas phase to the aqueous liquid phase, thereby decreasing the efficiency.

• 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.

• 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 the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.124-130
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• 2000

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of gas retention time and filling depth of a compost-based biofilter on removal of vapor phase gasoline and to suggest operational improving method. Gas empty bed retention times(EBRTs) were 4, 10, and 20 minutes, respectively. EBRT of over 10 minutes was required in both cases of TPH(total petroleum hydrocarbons) and BTEK (bezene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene). Filling depths were 25, 50, 75, and 100cm, respectively. To treat gasoline TPH effectively, controlling other operational parameters including EBRT and gas loading rate was more important than increasing filling depth simply. 1m filling depth was sufficient in treating BTEX without controlling other operational parameters greatly.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.465-469
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• 2006

Two mesophilic trickling bed bioreactors filled with two different types of media, hydrophilic- and hydrophobic-cubes, were designed and tested for hydrogen production via anaerobic fermentation of sucrose. Each reactor consisted of a column packed with polymeric cubes and inoculated with heat-treated sludge obtained from anaerobic digestion tank. A defined medium containing sucrose was fed with changing flow rate into the capped reactor, hydraulic retention time and recycle rate. Hydrogen concentrations in gas-phase were constant, averaging 40% for all conditions tested. Hydrogen production rates increased up to $10.5 L{\cdot};h^{-1}{\cdot}L^{-1}$ of reactor when influent sucrose concentrations and recycle rates were varied. Hydrophobic media provided higher value of hydrogen production rate than hydrophilic media at the same operation conditions. No methane was detected when the reactor was under a normal operation. The major fermentation by-products in the liquid effluent of the both trickling biofilters were acetate and butyrate. The reactor filled with hydrophilic media became clogged with biomass and bio gas, requiring manual cleaning of the system, while no clogging occurred in the reactor with hydrophobic media. In order to make long-term operation of the reactor filled with hydrophilic media feasible, biofilm accumulation inside the media in the reactor with hydrophilic media and biogas produced from the reactor will need to be controlled through some process such as periodical backwashing or gas-purging. These tests using trickling bed biofilter with hydrophobic media demonstrate the feasibility of the process to produce hydrogen gas in a trickle-bed type of reactor. A likely application of this reactor technology could be hydrogen gas recovery from pre-treatment of high carbohydrate-containing wastewaters.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.21 no.3 s.61
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• pp.15-26
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• 2006

As traffic in city-centre around the world continues to increase, so levels of atmospheric pollutants continue to rise. High concentrations of NOx can have negative effects on human health, and we must find new ways to reduce their levels in the air we breathe. Nitrogen oxide gas (NOx), consisting of nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ produced using $O_3$ oxidation, at a low concentration corresponding to that on roads as a result of exhaust from automobiles, was carried out to evaluate the removal characteristics of NOx through a laboratory-scale biofilter packed with soil as a packing material. A mixture media (yellow soil (30%): soil (40%): compost (10%): a used briquet (20%)) was applied. After about 1day of operation, the removal efficiency for $NO_2$ in all experiments with a constant condition ($25^{\circ}C$ and water humidity (60%)) was over 98%. The retention times of the section between phase I and phase II for formation and reduction of $NO_3$ NO and $NO_2$ on the initial $NO_3$ concentration was 50min $(O_3:195\;ppb),\;55min\;(O_3:925\;ppb),\;65min\;(O_3:1743\;ppb),\;70min\;(O_3:2616\;ppb),\;75min\;(O_3:3500\;ppb)$, respectively The soil biofilter system is a unique technology that purifies urban air by utilizing the natural processes that take place in the soil. Although some of the processes are quite complex, they can broadly be summarized as adsorption onto soil particles, dissolution into soil pore water, and biochemical.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.452-459
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• 1999

A two-stage continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR)/trickling biofilter reactor (TBR) system was developed for the degradation of gas-phase trichloroethlene (TCE) using Methylosinus trichoporium OB3b. Mrthylosinus trichosporium OB3b was immobilized on activated carbons in TBR and the microbial growth reactor of a CSTR was coupled for the reactivation of the deactivated cells during TCE degradation. The effect of operation variables on TCE conversion and degradation rate were studied. At inlet TCE concentrations ranging from 10 to 80 $\mu$mol/L, TCE degradation rate was increased up to 525 mg TCE/Lㆍday with 75% conversion. The TCE degradation rates were also increased with increse in broth recycle flow rate, gas flow rate and dilution rate. When the temperature of TBR was changed from 3$0^{\circ}C$ to 15$^{\circ}C$, TCE degradation rate and TCE conversion were increased due to the enhanced TCE transfer from gas-phase. The two-stage reactor system was found to be stable and has been operated for more than 270 days.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.511-515
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• 2001

In this paper, we development and operated a two-stage continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR)/trickling biofilter(TBF)system for the long-term continuous treatment of trichloroethylene (TCE) using Burkholderia cepacia G4. In this reactor system. CDTR with cell recycle from TBF was coupled to the TBF for the reactivation of the cells deactivated during TCE degradation. The critical elimination capacity was determined to be 25.3 mg TCE/L day and the reactor has been stably operated for more than 1 months, which clearly represented that CSTR/TBF system can be used for long-term treatment of TCE.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2010

There are four key factors for gas-phase biofilters; biocatalysts(microorganisms), packing materials, design/operating techniques, and diagnosis/management techniques. Biofilter performance is significantly affected by microbial community structures as well as loading conditions. The microbial studies on biofilters are mostly performed on basis of culture-dependent methods. Recently, advanced methods have been proposed to characterize the microbial community structure in environmental samples. In this study, the physiological, biochemical and molecular methods for profiling microbial communities are reviewed, and their applicability to biofilters is discussed. Community-level physiological profile is based on the utilization capability of carbon substrate by heterotrophic community in environmental samples. Phospholipid fatty acid analysis method is based on the variability of fatty acids present in cell membranes of different microorganisms. Molecular methods using DNA directly extracted from environmental samples can be divided into "partial community DNA analysis" and "whole community DNA analysis" approaches. The former approaches consist in the analysis of PCR-amplified sequence, the genes of ribosomal operon are the most commonly used sequences. These methods include PCR fragment cloning and genetic fingerprinting such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism, ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, and random amplified polymorphic DNA. The whole community DNA analysis methods are total genomic cross-DNA hybridization, thermal denaturation and reassociation of whole extracted DNA and extracted whole DNA fractionation using density gradient.