Biofiltration of xylene polluted air with a new filtering bed composed of cellulose

The problem related to air discharge contaminated with volatile organic sol vents (VOS) is the scope of numerous researches. Throughout the last decade s, the development of different types of bioreactors to treat atmospheric e missions contaminated with VOS has been observed, such as: the bioscrubber, the percolating filter and the biofilter. These bioreactors are processes that use microorganisms in order to degrade the VOS into carbon dioxide, wa ter, and biomass. This paper presents the results of a study on degradation by biofiltration of xylene contained in air, with a new filtering bed comp osed of cellulose. We have studied the conversion, the capacity of eliminat ion of xylene with respect to the inlet load and the production of carbon d ioxide. An elimination capacity of 75 g.m(3.)h(1) for an inlet con centrati on to the biofilter of 1.7 g.m(3) of xylene has been obtained, which is a v alue that is superior to values mentioned in the literature. Measurements o f temperature, pressure drop, and moisture content have been taken regularl y so as to evaluate the influence of these parameters in the degradation pr ocess of xylene by microorganisms. Counts of bacteria and yeast/mould prese nt in the filtering bed have been performed in order to follow the evolutio n of these micro organisms. At last, modeling based on the Ottengraf's mode l (1986) has been developed with the experimental data.