Performance of a hollow fiber membrane bioreactor for the treatment of gaseous toluene

• Autores: JiHyeon Song, Young-Gyu Son, Jee-Hyeong Khim
• Localización: Biotechniques for air pollution control: proceedings of the international congress Biotechniques for Air Pollution Control : A Coruña, Spain, October 5-7, 2005 / Christian Kennes (dir. congr.), María C. Veiga (dir. congr.), 2005, ISBN 84-9749-163-7, págs. 235-240
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A hollow fiber membrane bioreactor (HFMB) has emerged as a treatment technology for the air emission of biodegradable volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The hollow fiber membrane serves as a support for VOC-degrading microorganisms and provides a large surface area for the VOC mass transfer. In this study, a bioreactor system using a submerged hollow fiber membrane module was applied to investigate feasibility and biodegradation capacity of the system for the treatment of gaseous toluene. The HFMB was operated at different inlet toluene loading rates of 50, 100, 500 g/m3.h, and overall removal efficiencies were maintained in the range of 70 – 80%. In addition, elimination capacities (EC) were increased up to 800 g/m3.h, which was substantially higher than maximum ECs for toluene reported in the biofiltration literature. These findings imply that the HFMB be a feasible alternate over conventional packed-bed type biofilters. However, an increase in pressure drop across the hollow fiber membrane module was observed with the increasing operation time. As a result, more integrated research is required to improve the HFMB performance as well as to minimize the pressure drop across the membrane.