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Continuous biological waste gas treatment in stirred trickle‐bed reactor with discontinuous removal of biomass
Author(s) -
Laurenzis A.,
Heits H.,
Wübker S.M.,
Heinze U.,
Friedrich C.,
Werner U.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0290(19980220)57:4<497::aid-bit14>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - trickle bed reactor , packed bed , trickle , biomass (ecology) , clogging , trickling filter , chemistry , toluene , bioreactor , pressure drop , waste management , pulp and paper industry , chromatography , environmental engineering , sewage treatment , environmental science , catalysis , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , ecology , physics , biology , history , archaeology , political science , law , engineering
A new reactor for biological waste gas treatment was developed to eliminate continuous solvents from waste gases. A trickle‐bed reactor was chosen with discontinuous movement of the packed bed and intermittent percolation. The reactor was operated with toluene as the solvent and an optimum average biomass concentration of between 5 and 30 kg dry cell weight per cubic meter packed bed (m 3 pb ). This biomass concentration resulted in a high volumetric degradation rate. Reduction of surplus biomass by stirring and trickling caused a prolonged service life and prevented clogging of the trickle bed and a pressure drop increase. The pressure drop after biomass reduction was almost identical to the theoretical pressure drop as calculated for the irregular packed bed without biomass. The reduction in biomass and intermittent percolation of mineral medium resulted in high volumetric degradation rates of about 100 g of toluene m −3 pb h −1 at a load of 150 g of toluene m −3 pb h −1 . Such a removal rate with a trickle‐bed reactor was not reported before. ©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 57: 497‐503, 1998.