DEGRADATION OF TOLUENE HEPTANE MIXTURES IN A TRICKLING-BED BIOREACTOR/

Laws and regulations for the reduction of solvent emissions tend to fo rce increasingly lower limits on gaseous emissions. Biological waste-g as treatment is an ecological and rather cheap method for solvent redu ction, which is often used for waste-gas streams containing two or mor e components. The microbiological degradation of toluene and heptane a s well as of several mixtures of these substances were investigated in a laboratory plant trickling-bed reactor. It was found that toluene w as degraded at up to three times the rate for the heptane. Heptane eli mination in the mixtures was low and the toluene elimination rate at l ow organic loads approached 100%.