Elimination of hydrogen sulphide from odorous air by a wood bark biofilter

Abstract

Wood bark, used as biofilter material, gives less back pressure than fibre peat or household compost and is therefore cheaper in variable costs than the other materials. With a filter bed height of 0.9 m and with a surface load of 65 m 3 m −2 h −1, 10 ppm hydrogen sulphide is efficiently eliminated from odorous air by a wood bark biofilter. The most important parameter for a good functioning of the filter is the water content of the filter material. The optimum for wood bark is about 65%. Unnecessarily high back pressures are recorded during sprinkling water on top of the filter. Therefore, it seems preferable to condition the relative humidity of air entering the filter. If absorption and adsorption were the only factors in the biofilter mechanism, hydrogen sulphide would, in the given circumstances, break through after about 7 h. It is shown that hydrogen sulphide is oxidized to sulphate. According to literature data, chemical oxidation is too slow and therefore hydrogen sulphide oxidation in the biofilter is attributed to microbiological action.