• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.149-154
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• 2012

The adsorption and desorption behavior of biofilter-medium was investigated on the performance of an adsorption column. Continuous flow-isothermal adsorption experiments were performed to treat waste air containing such a VOC as ethanol under the same condition of > 90% relative humidity as the condition of the feed to a biofilter process. In case of feeding waste air containing ethanol of 1,000 ppmv (or 2,050 mg ethanol/$m^3$) to the adsorption system at the rate of 2 L/min, the onsets of its breakthrough and reaching the state of dynamic equilibrium at the exit had been delayed 10 and 3 times, respectively, later than those at the 1st stage sampling port. Moreover, in case of 2,000 ppmv (or 4,100 mg ethanol/$m^3$), they had been delayed 9 and 3 times, respectively. Thus, regardless of feeding concentration, the ratios of delaying period were observed to be quite consistent each other at the exit of the adsorption column. With regard to the period of desorption, the ratios of delaying period were consistent each other to be 1.5 for both cases. In addition, the effect of microbial activity and sterilization-process was studied on adsorption equilibrium. The ethanol concentration in the vapor phase of vials packed with sterilized granular activated carbon (GAC) was quite consistent to that with unsterilized GAC. However, the ethanol concentrations in the vapor phase of vials packed with unsterilized compost and the unsterilized mixture of GAC and compost were higher than those with sterilized compost and the sterilized mixture of GAC and compost, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.994-1001
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• 2008

Freundlich isothermal adsorption parameters, applicable to such biofilter-model as process-lumping model(Lim's model), for sterilized granular activated carbon(GAC), sterilized compost and sterilized equal volume mixture of GAC and compost were obtained and were compared each other, assuming that adsorbents are enclosed by water layer, in order to construct robust process-lumping biofilter model effective for wide-range of hydrophilic volatile organic compounds(VOC). In this investigation 0.04, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.0ml of ethanol were added to three kinds of adsorbent-media and were placed at $30^{\circ}{\cdots}$ under the wet condition of the media, which was the same as biofilter operating condition, until the adsorption reached the condition of equilibrium before each adsorbed amount of ethanol was obtained. Then adsorption capacity parameters(K) and adsorption exponents of Freundlich adsorption isotherm equation, which simulates the adsorbed amount of ethanol equilibrated with the ethanol concentration of the condensed water in the pore of the media, were constructed for sterilized granular activated carbon(GAC), sterilized compost and sterilized equal volume mixture of GAC and compost as (0.7566 and $5.070{\times}10^{-7}mg-ethanol/mgmedia/(mg-ethanol/m^3)^{0.7566}$), (0.8827 and $1.000{\times}10^{-8}mg-ethanol/mgmedia/(mg-ethanol/m^3)^{0.8827}$) and (0.5688 and $5.243{\times}10^{-6}mg-ethanol/mgmedia/(mg-ethanol/m^3)^{0.5688}$), respectively. These Freundlich isothermal adsorption parameters were applicable to the adsorption characteristics of biofilter media enclosed with bio-layer. The order of magnitude of the ratio of ethanol-air/water partition coefficient and toluene-air/water partition coefficient was almost consistent to that of ethanol-adsorbed amounts in this experiment with compost and in the investigation of Delhomenie et al. on toluene-adsorption to wet compost.