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Biofiltration - A Versatile Technique in Pollution Control

Conference Paper · January 2008

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Sivangi Suryanarayana Raju

GIET Engineering College, Rajahmundry, AP, India.
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 Biofiltration - A Versatile Technique In Pollution Control
Dr. S. Suryanarayana Raju*

Godavari Institute of Engineering & Technology, Rajahmundry, A. P. – 533 294.

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ABSTRACT

Pollution is one among the serious tasks for all the scientists and engineers
throughout the world now a days. A wide range of research is in progress for the
identification of new methods to control and mitigate all the parameters that adversely
influence all the continents of the environment. The control of air pollution is of special
interest and drastic changes in the implementations of various techniques have been taken
place since long time. Biofiltration is a technique with a wide versatility in control of
adverse effects due to effluent gases. It concern with the removal and oxidation of
compounds from contaminated air using microorganisms. This technique has become
more popular in the treatment of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), as an innovative
method to treat toxic air emissions from commercial processes . Biofilteration was
employed successfully to remove airborne contaminants, including aliphatic and aromatic
hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, organic acids, acrylate, carbolic acids, amines and
ammonia. Two - bifilter systems for the removal of different kinds of effluents are being
developed. The current paper describes the developmental aspects , principles and clear
mechanism of the controlling action of biofilters.

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Key Words: Biofilter, Pollutant Gases, Design of Biofilter, Working Mechanism,
Influencing Factors

*Vice-Principal; Prof & HOD, Department of Biotechnology, G I E T, Rajahmundry,

+ 91 883 2484828 to 31 ( 0ff ), + 91883 2411606, 98481 07406, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION

Biofiltration is an emerging technology, applied to waste gas purification in order

to control the volatile organic, inorganic compounds, aromatic compounds toxic
compounds and any odorous compounds. It is under extensive usage in USA and
Europe since 40 years. This is highly useful at industrial level for the treatment of high-
volume, low-concentration air steams. This is based on a process that occurs naturally in
soils and water and thus represents a safe, eco - friendly "green" technology. There are no
hazardous by-products that need to be addressed in biofiltration and further the technique
is more cost-effective for the application as an air pollution control
Gaseous emissions are often involved in problems like odor nuisance, health
impacts, smog formation, acid rain and the greenhouse effect. Most of the techniques
that are being applied in the treatment of these off-gases are physico-chemical methods,
viz. separation, adsorption, scrubbing, incineration and catalytic oxidation. Inspite of that,
infiltration, bioscrubbing and biotrickling, have been attracting an increasing popularity
in Europe, because of their low cost, operational simplicity. As the techniques are
intrinsically “clean technologies”, they reduce / eliminate the need for additional
treatments of end products.
Technologies considered to be forms of biofiltration include biofilters,
bioscrubbers, biotricklng filters and engineered biofilters, all operating with the same
fundamental mechanisms of contaminant sorption and biodegradation. Biofilters can be
regarded as solid fermenters. The gas is forced to flow through a bed packed support on
which microorganisms are attached as a biofilm or immobilized. As a microbial
purification process, biofiltration is based on the ability of microorganisms to degrade
organic and inorganic compounds present in waste gases and their complete oxidation to
generate energy for metabolism.

DISCUSSION
Advent of Biofilters
Biofiltration is the biotechnological method for the removal of undesired off-gas
components from air. Since 1920’s biofilters have been applied to remove odorous
compounds from wastewater treatment plants or intensive animal farming. Initially, they
were made by digging trenches with permeable soil, wood chips or compost. From the
late 1970’s most of the development work on biological off-gas treatment has been
carried out in Europe countries especially in Germany and the Netherlands, in response to
increase in the national regulatory requirements.
Only up to 1980’s intensive progress has started in Western Europe and United
States, and since then researches on biofiltration are being focused on the degradation of
toxic volatile chemicals and on industrial applications, using different supports, types of
filters and microorganisms.
Biofilters were built first in United States in 1960’s. During the late 1980’s to the
late 1990’s approximately thirty large full-scale systems about more than 100m3 of filter
material have been built for the control of volatile organic compounds, hazardous air
pollutants and odor. Biofiltration has had more industrial success in Europe and in Japan
where over 500 biofilters are in operation.
Unused landfill gases are a kind of troublesome wastes. If appropriate technology
were available, they could become a substantial source of energy. For example, the
methane in the gases might be used in conventional engines or in fuel cells, but sulfide
and chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminants corrode the engines and contaminate the fuel
cells. Biofiltration is considered as an effective means of eliminating some of these
compounds. Initially biofilters are used to oxidize sulfides and deplete the small
quantities of oxygen that are often present. Later in an anaerobic biofilter, reductive
dehalogenation of the chlorinated hydrocarbons is possible.

Biofiltration - Principle
Biofiltration can be described as the removal and oxidation of harmful gases,
mainly volatile organic compounds, from contaminated air. The contaminated air passes
through a support of compost or soil, which is disposed into a horizontal or vertical
reactor. Under the bed lies a distribution system, consisting of perforated pipes designed
specially to provide an equal flow of the gas through the porous bed. Gas treatment by
biological processes can also be described as a diffusion of gaseous phase into an
aqueous phase, where microorganisms convert biodegradable pollutant components into
harmless products.

Biofilters - Design and Development

Biofiters, are the systems in which the gas is blown through a bed of compost or
soil, where the natural microorganisms present in the support consume the gaseous
organic pollutants or an inert support where a special microorganism or pool of
microorganisms are cultivated. In these cases, the degradation of environmentally
harmful compounds is due to an active biofilm deposited onto a package consisting of
active and selected microorganisms. The aqueous phase is presented in the form of
humidity, at the solid support.

Biofilters – composed of a solid support, covered by an active biofilm, a bed

through which the gas with harmful compounds passes. A schematic representation of
biofilter is given in Figure 1 and a typical bench scale biofilter in usage at U S is shown
in Figure 2. A range of technologies is available to treat odorous air from wastewater
treatment plants, sulfur effluents, industrial processes and industrial wastewater such as
organic solvents, volatile organic compounds and sulfur compounds. Many kinds of
apparatus can be designed and many kinds of media are available for this purpose.

Figure 1 : Schematic Representation of a Biofilter

 Figure 2 : A Model Bench Scale Biofilter

Biofiltrattion – Mechanism
In biofiltration, the polluted air is passed through a biologically active filter, or
biofilter. Microorganisms in the biofilter convert the air pollutants into harmless by-
products that are primarily carbon dioxide and water. Removal of contaminants is a
multi-step process, shown in Scheme I.

Stage – I Stage – II Stage – III

Stage 1 : The transportation of the contaminant into liquid phase.

Stage 2 : The transportation of liquid contaminant to bacterial cell in biofilm

Stage 3 : Transport of contaminant across cell membrane

(Biodegradable Stage)

Scheme – I

As represented in Scheme I, the treatment process relies basically on two primary

fundamental mechanisms:

 Sorption
  Biodegradation.
As the contaminated gas steam passes through the bed, contaminants are
transferred from the gaseous phase to the liquid or solid phase onto the media.
Three possible mechanisms are responsible for this transfer to the phase where the
contaminant will degrade:
1. Adsorption on organic media – desorption /dissolution in aqueous phase –
biodegradation
2. Direct adsorption in biofilm-degradation
3. Dissolution in aqueous phase – degradation
Once adsorbed in the biofilm layer, or dissolved in the water layer around the
biofilm, the contaminant, usually an organic molecule is available as food for the
microorganisms metobolism, serving as carbon and energy source for support life a
growth. Then the contaminant is exhausted from the biofilter. These physical, chemical
and biological phenomena that concur to the contaminated gas treatment happen in an
apparatus, which has some special characteristics due to operational variations.

Microorganisms live in a bed of biofilter (Figure.1) packing material consisting of

a mixture of rocks, compost, activated sludge, or other hard support material that avoids
long-term compaction problems. The bed is housed in an open or an enclosed vessel
ranging in size from small 1,000-gallon tanks to large buildings. A blower is used to
move the air through the biofilter, and an air dispersion system ensures evenly distributed
flow in the bed. High moisture is constantly maintained in the biofilter bed. The ideal
operating temperature is 15ºC to 43ºC.

Biofiltration – Influencing Factors:

 Biofilter media
 Moisture content
 Temperature
 Microorganisms
 pH
 Nutrients
Biofilter media :
 Mean particle size and particle distribution is important. The medium
particles should be large enough so that head loses are small and biomass
does not clog the biofilters.
 If too many small particles contains in the media, they will be washed
along with any water flow and accumulate in the pore spaces or in the
drain system causing clogging.
 Optimal microbial environment- includes nutrients, moisture, pH, carbon
supply should be non limiting.
 Structural integrity- it is necessary to resist medium compaction due to
self – weight over the time that increases pressure drops and lowers gas
retention times.
 High moisture retention- sufficient moisture content to maintain active
microorganisms.
 High porosity- to keep retention times high and back pressures low
 Low bulk density- to reduce medium compaction potential

Different types of biofilter media commonly used are compost, peat, bark mulch
and mixtures of these, which comes under organic materials.

Moisture content:

 Maintaining moisture content is very important in the overall performance of

biofilter. An over-wet as well as, a dry biofilter causes problems.

 An over-wet biofilter causes high backpressures and low gas residence times,

reduced mass transport, odor development, production of high strength

 A dry biofilter medium may leads to deactivation of microorganisms, contraction

and consequent medium cracking reducing retention times.

 Optimal biofilter medium moisture contents ranges from 40-60%on weight base.
Temperature:
Temperature measurement in biofilters is important because, Temperature should
not be too high to kill the bacteria and it should not be too low to inhibit the bacterial
activity in the reactor. Temperature in the reactor should be maintained in the range in
which microbial activity is maximum. Biofilter operation in the mesophillic range of 25-
350 c has been recommended, with 350 c often noted as the optimal temperature for
aerobic microorganisms in the biofiters. Inorder to maintain the temperature, the waste
gas stream may need to be cooled or heated to the required temperature.

Microorganisms:
The mostly used microorganisms for Volatile Organic Compounds are
heterotrophs and for the treatment of inorganic influent gases, are cheamoautotrophs.
Activated seeded cultures can be used in compost biofilters, because microbes are already
adapted to pollutants, so that acclimatization times are less. Sole inorganic media can
also seeded with activated sludge cultures. Seeding with specially cultured microbial
strains is important when treating complex waste.

pH:
For most biological purposes pH ranges between 7 to 8. While treating the waste
gas streams, the end products may be acid intermediates. For maintaining pH between 7
to 8, buffering capacity should be adequate to prevent acid accumulation. Buffering
addition using limestone, crushed oyster shells, and marl has proven effective. These
solids should be added in sufficient stiochiometric equivalents during biofilter medium
preparation to buffer the acid formation over the design life.

Nutrients:
Important nutrients with respect to microbial growth and metabolism include N,
P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe and trace elements. Organic media such as compost, usually
supply ample quantities of nutrients in the available form. But inorganic media like
granular activated carbon, activated alumina requires nutrients addition during operation.
Typical operating conditions for a biofilter are given in Table 1.
Table1: Typical Operating Conditions for waste Air Treatment in Biofilters

S.No. Biofilter layer height 1m

1 Biofilter area 1 – 3000m2
2 Waste air flow 50 – 300,000 m3 h-1
3 Biofilter surface loading 5 – 500 m3 m-2 h-1
4 Biofilter volumetric loading 5 – 500 m3 m-2 h-1
5 Bed void volume Ca. 50%
6 Mean effective gas residence time 15 – 60 s (min.2s)
7 Pressure drop per meter of bed height 0.2 – 1.0 cm C W (max. 10 cm)
8 Inlet pollutant concentration 0.01 – 5g pollutant m-3 air
and /or 500 – 500,000 OU m-3
9 Operating temperature 15 – 30 0c
10 Inlet air relative humidity > 98%
11 Water content of the support material Ca. 60% mass
12 pH of the supporting material pH 6 - 8
13 Typical removal efficiencies 60 – 100 %

CONCLUSUIONS

Compared to other conventional physico-chemical treatments biofiltration is a

versatile technique which is in current usage for the effluent treatment in several
developed and developing countries because of the advantages. However, the technique
also has some disadvantages which must be seriously considered for the total adoption.

Advantages: Biofiltration has many advantages over traditional volatile organic

compounds and hazardous air pollutant destruction methods as listed below.
 The low temperature oxidation eliminates the high costs associated with
combustion.
 Intrinsically Safe - The low temperature oxidation and high moisture content
eliminate the fears associated with combustion.
 Low Annual Operating Cost - There are only two major power consumers in a
biofiltration system: a recirculation pump for humidification and a fan to pull the
gas stream through the equipment.
 Low Pressure Drop - Much lower pressure drop than catalytic or regenerative
thermal oxidizers resulting in fan power consumption savings.
 Proven Effective Technology - Biofiltration systems are in place with historical
operating experience demonstrating regulatory compliance.
 Environmentally Friendly - Zero NOx emissions, Zero SOx emissions and
substantially lower Carbon Dioxide emissions.
 Low Maintenance - Very few moving parts result in lower maintenance cost.

Disadvantages: The following are certain disadvantages identified regarding the

biofiltration technique.
 System is not fitted for compounds, which have low adsorption and degradation
rates, mainly chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds.
 Large biofilter units or large areas are required to treat contaminated sources with
high chemical emissions.
 Source of emission that vary severely or produces spikes, can be detrimental to
the biofilter performance and to the microbial population.
 Biofilters require long periods of acclimation for microbial population, weeks or
even months, mainly for Volatile Organic Compounds treatment.
 REFERENCES

1. Gerrand A M , Economic des ign of biofilter systems , Journal of Chemical

technology and biotechnology, 68 ( 4 ): 377-380, 1990.

2. Hodge D S ; Devinny JS , Modeling: Removal of air contaminants by

biofiltration, Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE, 121 ( 1 ); 21-32;
1995.

3. Ligy Philip Advanced Waste Minimization And Management Technologies.

“Biofiltration: an attractive alternative for the abatement of air pollution from
industries”. Pp 19.1 –19.16

4. Edward Reynolds. F, Jr.2000 USC-TRG Conference On Biofiltration(An Air

Pollution Control Technology)

5. Swanson, W J; Loehr, R C . Journal of Environmental Engineering 123: ( 6 )

538-546, 1997

6. “Biofiltration: An Emerging technology”. Indian journal of biotechnology

vol 2, July 2003, Pp 396 – 410

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