Influence of the inlet load, EBRT and mineral medium addition on spore emission by Fusarium solani in the fungal biofiltration of hydrophobic VOCs

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUND: The effect of the inlet n‐pentane load (IL), empty bed residence time (EBRT) and mineral medium (MM) addition on spore emission and elimination capacity (EC) was evaluated using the fungus Fusarium solani in a vermiculite‐based biofilter.RESULTS: When the process was operated at an EBRT of 3.7 min and an IL of 100 g m$_{\rm {reactor}}^{-3}$ h−1, the weekly addition of MM from 6.8 to 13.6 mLMM L$_{\rm {vermiculite}}^{-1}$ resulted in fluctuacting dynamics of ECs and spore emission.When varying the n‐pentane IL from 25 to 875 g m$_{\rm {reactor}}^{-3}$ h−1, a maximum EC of 110 g m$_{\rm {reactor}}^{-3}$ h−1 associated with a spore emission of 1.8 × 104 CFU m$_{\rm {air}}^{-3}$ was recorded. The critical inlet load for 90% n‐pentane removal was 50 g m$_{\rm {reactor}}^{-3}$ h−1 with spore emission 4.5 × 103 CFU m$_{\rm {air}}^{-3}$. Finally, when the EBRT was decreased from 3.7 to 2.1 min at a constant n‐pentane IL of 50 g m$_{\rm {reactor}}^{-3}$ h−1 the EC decreased by 110%.CONCLUSIONS: The results show a poor performance of the n‐pentane biofiltration system at high IL and low EBRT, which was further confirmed by the low final biomass concentrations in the biofilter (62 mgbiomass g$_{\rm {vermiculite}}^{-1}$). Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry