Modeling of a capillary microbioreactor for VOC removal

Abstract

Capillary microreactors have shown superior performance as a result of the precise control of reaction parameters, contact time, shape and size of the interface between gas and liquid and enhanced mass transfer due to high surface to volume ratio. In this work, a mathematical model of a capillary microbioreactor treating VOC vapors was developed and validated experimentally. The main goal for this conceptual model was to adequately describe or predict VOC vapor removal in the capillary microbioreactor under different operating conditions and its mineralization to CO2. The model considered toluene as the model VOC and included oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Experimental data used for model calibration and validation were obtained from experiments conducted at various toluene and volumetric loading rates. A parametric sensitivity to the model was performed to identify the parameters that most affected the performance of the microbioreactor system. The most sensitive parameters were biokinetic parameters followed by system specific parameters, indicating that the system performance was limited by kinetics rather than by mass transfer. Overall, the model and the approach described herein help us better understand the performance and limits of these microbioreactors and they serve as important tools for process optimization.