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Two liquid‐phase bubble column bioreactors for the removal of volatile organic compounds from air streams
Author(s) -
Hashemi Seyedeh Fatemeh,
Goharrizi Ataallah Soltani,
Fazaelipoor Mohammad Hassan
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.591
Subject(s) - bioreactor , hexane , silicone oil , chromatography , chemistry , airflow , organic chemistry , mechanical engineering , engineering
Two equal‐sized bubble column bioreactors were used to investigate the effect of silicone oil on the removal efficiency (RE) of a bubble column bioreactor for hydrophobic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In the first stage, the performance of the two liquid‐phase bubble column bioreactors (in terms of hexane removal) containing 4 L mineral medium and 400 mL of silicone oil was compared to a control bioreactor (without silicone oil). With the airflow rate of 1.5 L min −1 and n ‐hexane concentration of 1.6 g m −3 , the hexane RE of oil‐added bioreactor was 27% compared to 16.3% for the control bioreactor. To obtain better removal efficiencies, in the second stage of the experiments, the airflow rate and the inlet n ‐hexane concentration were reduced to 0.9 L min −1 and 1 g m −3 , respectively. In this stage, 150 mL of fermentation medium was replaced with fresh medium daily to avoid possible nutrient limitation and build up of toxicants. As a result of this replacement, the hexane RE of the oil‐added bioreactor was 76% compared to 37% for the control bioreactor. In the third stage, the effect of silicone oil percentage on the bioreactor's hexane RE was investigated. The results showed that increasing silicone oil percentage from 5 to 15% had a significant positive effect on the hexane RE (for the hexane inlet concentration of 1.6 g m −3 , the RE approximately doubled). However, the effect of oil percentage on the VOC RE was seen insignificant when silicone oil was above 15%. In the final stage of this work, the effect of adding expanded perlite particles to the liquid medium of two liquid‐phase bubble column bioreactors was investigated. The results showed that perlite had a significant positive effect on the hexane RE of the bioreactor. © 2011 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.