TY - JOUR
T1 - Retrofitting existing chemical scrubbers to biotrickling filters for H2S emission control
AU - Gabriel, David
AU - Deshusses, Marc A.
PY - 2003/5/27
Y1 - 2003/5/27
N2 - Biological treatment is a promising alternative to conventional air-pollution control methods, but thus far biotreatment processes for odor control have always required much larger reactor volumes than chemical scrubbers. We converted an existing full-scale chemical scrubber to a biological trickling filter and showed that effective treatment of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the converted scrubber was possible even at gas contact times as low as 1.6 s. That is 8-20 times shorter than previous biotrickling filtration reports and comparable to usual contact times in chemical scrubbers. Significant removal of reduced sulfur compounds, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds present in traces in the air was also observed. Continuous operation for >8 months showed stable performance and robust behavior for H2S treatment, with pollutant-removal performance comparable to that achieved by using a chemical scrubber. Our study demonstrates that biotrickling filters can replace chemical scrubbers and be a safer, more economical technique for odor control.
AB - Biological treatment is a promising alternative to conventional air-pollution control methods, but thus far biotreatment processes for odor control have always required much larger reactor volumes than chemical scrubbers. We converted an existing full-scale chemical scrubber to a biological trickling filter and showed that effective treatment of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the converted scrubber was possible even at gas contact times as low as 1.6 s. That is 8-20 times shorter than previous biotrickling filtration reports and comparable to usual contact times in chemical scrubbers. Significant removal of reduced sulfur compounds, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds present in traces in the air was also observed. Continuous operation for >8 months showed stable performance and robust behavior for H2S treatment, with pollutant-removal performance comparable to that achieved by using a chemical scrubber. Our study demonstrates that biotrickling filters can replace chemical scrubbers and be a safer, more economical technique for odor control.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0731894100
DO - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0731894100
M3 - Article
VL - 100
SP - 6308
EP - 6312
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
ER -