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Simultaneous Treatment of Graywater and Waste Gas in a Biological Trickling Filter
Author(s) -
McLamore Eric,
Sharvelle Sybil,
Huang Zhen,
Banks Kathy
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143008x266788
Subject(s) - trickling filter , greywater , waste management , environmental science , wastewater , environmental engineering , pulp and paper industry , engineering
Biological processors are typically used in liquid‐ and gas‐phase remediation as separately staged systems. This research presents a novel application of a biotrickling filter operated for simultaneous treatment of contaminants present in graywater and waste gas (ammonia and hydrogen sulfide). Liquid‐ and gas‐phase contaminants were monitored via bioreactor influent/effluent samples over the course of a 300‐day study. An oxygen‐based bioassay was used to determine spatial location of the functional groups involved in the biodegradation of surfactants, dissolved hydrogen sulfide, and ammonium. Results indicated that a biotrickling filter is able to support the wide range of microbial species required to degrade the compounds found in graywater and waste gas, maintaining conversion efficiencies greater than 90% for parent surfactant compounds and waste gas constituents. These results provide evidence of an operational scheme that potentially reduces footprint size and cost of graywater/waste gas biotreatment.