Chapter 9 - Industrial biofilter case studies

Abstract

Biofilters are commonly used to treat pollutants emitted from industries including wastewater treatment facilities, printed circuit board manufacturing plants, meat rendering plants, pet food industries, and general chemical and petrochemical industries. The pollutants emitted from industries can be categorized into two major groups: volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and odorous compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide, and so on. Biofilter design and configurations vary depending on the airflow volume being treated and characteristics of air streams considered. Inlet air stream may contain particulates, biodegradable and nonbiodegradable compounds at different concentration levels. Thus, in many cases, biofilter applications need pretreatment steps involving physical, chemical methods, or other methods prior to the biofiltration step. Thus, biofilter applications have their limitations, which need to be considered in the biofilter design, operation, and maintenance. In this chapter, selected industrial biofilter case studies involving reduced sulfur compounds and VOCs are reviewed. This chapter provides information on biofilter design, air stream characterizations, and pretreatment methods, limitations of biofilter technology, biofilter models, operation and maintenance issues, and industrial case studies.