Biological anoxic treatment of O2-free VOC emissions from the petrochemical industry: A proof of concept study

•The treatment of O2-free VOC emissions can be done by means of denitrifying processes.•Toluene vapors were successfully removed under anoxic denitrifying conditions.•A high bacterial diversity was observed.•Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the predominant phyla.•The nature and number of metab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 260; pp. 442 - 450
Main Authors:	Muñoz, Raúl, Souza, Theo S.O., Glittmann, Lina, Pérez, Rebeca, Quijano, Guillermo
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15-09-2013 Elsevier
Subjects:	Actinobacteria Actinobacteria - genetics Actinobacteria - metabolism Anoxic VOC removal Applied sciences Atmospheric pollution Bacteria Benzaldehydes - chemistry Benzyl alcohol Benzyl Alcohol - chemistry Biodegradation, Environmental Biodiversity Biological Biological gas treatment Bioreactors - microbiology Biotrickling filter Chemical engineering Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis Denitrification Environmental Pollutants - chemistry Environmental Restoration and Remediation Equipment Design Exact sciences and technology Gases Heat and mass transfer. Packings, plates Industry Mass transfer Microbial Consortia Nitrogen - chemistry O2-free VOC emissions Oxygen - chemistry Phenol Pollution Product innovation Proteobacteria Proteobacteria - genetics Proteobacteria - metabolism Reactors Safety Salts Time Factors Toluene Toluene - chemistry Volatile Organic Compounds Biotrickling filter Denitrification O2-free VOC emissions Toluene Biological gas treatment Anoxic VOC removal Metabolite Pollutant emission Modeling Biological purification O Cresol Loading Aromatic compound Safety Organic compounds Biodegradation Pollutant behavior Reuse Volatile organic compound Biological activity Mass transfer free VOC emissions Petrochemical industry Bioreactor Phenol Phenols Air pollution Biofilter Degradation product O-free VOC emissions
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Summary:	•The treatment of O2-free VOC emissions can be done by means of denitrifying processes.•Toluene vapors were successfully removed under anoxic denitrifying conditions.•A high bacterial diversity was observed.•Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the predominant phyla.•The nature and number of metabolites accumulated varied with the toluene load An innovative biofiltration technology based on anoxic biodegradation was proposed in this work for the treatment of inert VOC-laden emissions from the petrochemical industry. Anoxic biofiltration does not require conventional O2 supply to mineralize VOCs, which increases process safety and allows for the reuse of the residual gas for inertization purposes in plant. The potential of this technology was evaluated in a biotrickling filter using toluene as a model VOC at loads of 3, 5, 12 and 34gm−3h−1 (corresponding to empty bed residence times of 16, 8, 4 and 1.3min) with a maximum elimination capacity of ∼3gm−3h−1. However, significant differences in the nature and number of metabolites accumulated at each toluene load tested were observed, o- and p-cresol being detected only at 34gm−3h−1, while benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde and phenol were detected at lower loads. A complete toluene removal was maintained after increasing the inlet toluene concentration from 0.5 to 1gm−3 (which entailed a loading rate increase from 3 to 6gm−3h−1), indicating that the system was limited by mass transfer rather than by biological activity. A high bacterial diversity was observed, the predominant phyla being Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0304-3894 1873-3336
DOI:	10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.05.051