Abstract
Synergism is an important strategy to enhance the bioavailability of pollutants and optimize biotrickling filter (BTF) performance. The synergistic biodegradation of m-xylene with the introduction of toluene was investigated in this study. The packing was diatomaceous earth pellets with a volume of 2411 cm3. The empty bed residence time (EBRT) of the BTF was kept constant at 25 s. The mixing ratios for toluene and m-xylene were 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, and 1:6, corresponding to the inlet loading rate (ILR) of m-xylene from about 36–216 g/m3/h, and the toluene ILR was maintained at about 36 g/m3/h. The biodegradation performance and biofilm characteristics were evaluated under these various mixture compositions. For mixing ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4, m-xylene was synergistically removed with toluene. The most pronounced synergism occurred when the ratio was 1:2; the average elimination capacity (EC) of m-xylene increased by 12.5%, from 64 g/m3/h to 72 g/m3/h. The presence of toluene promoted the growth of microorganisms and improved the hydrophobicity of the biofilm. In contrast, for the 1:6 toluene and m-xylene mixture, toluene inhibited the degradation of m-xylene. The microbial species composition analysis revealed that Burkholderia and Mycobacterium were correlated with synergistic removal of m-xylene, especially Burkholderia.
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