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Coupling ultraviolet photolysis and biofiltration for enhanced degradation of aromatic air pollutants
Author(s) -
Mohseni Madjid,
Zhao Joy Lan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.1371
Subject(s) - biofilter , chemistry , photodissociation , degradation (telecommunications) , pollutant , ultraviolet , environmental chemistry , xylene , water treatment , toluene , photochemistry , organic chemistry , environmental engineering , materials science , environmental science , telecommunications , optoelectronics , computer science
Coupling UV photolysis and biofiltration was evaluated as an effective treatment strategy for the enhanced degradation of hardly biodegradable aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). o ‐Xylene, a recalcitrant and poorly water‐soluble VOC, was used as a model compound and treated in two parallel treatment systems with and without UV pretreatment. Contaminated streams with flow rates of 0.186–0.384 m 3 h −1 and inlet o ‐xylene concentrations of up to 0.22 g m −3 were passed through the treatment system. About 20% (between 10 and 35%) of o ‐xylene was converted into water‐soluble intermediates during the UV photolysis stage, which partially oxidized o ‐xylene to more water‐soluble and biodegradable byproducts. The untreated contaminant along with the byproducts of UV photolysis was then removed effectively in the biofiltration stage, with improvements of up to 100% compared with the control biofiltration process. The results suggested that combined UV photolysis–biofiltration is promising as an effective technique to eliminate hydrophobic and recalcitrant organic compounds from contaminated air steams. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry