biofiltration for air pollution control research paper

Evaluation of Biofiltration of Air - An Innovative Air Pollution Control Technology

• Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Research output : Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

This paper summarizes a literature review on biofiltration and its capabilities for removing volatile organic compounds and inorganic pollutants from air. Biofiltration is an air pollution control technology that uses microorganisms to transform oxidizable vapors and gases into mostly innocuous end products. The reliance on microorganisms requires an appreciation of ecological principles and an understanding of microbial growth. Most biofilters treat air before it is exhausted to the atmosphere. Many of these systems have removal efficiencies greater than 90%. Biofiltration is cost competitive for removing biodegradable compounds at low concentrations. Costs increase as compound concentrations increase and treatability decreases. Potential occupational and public health aspects of biofiltration warrant further investigation. Biofiltration has been used as an air pollution control technology in numerous industries, including chemical, plastics, manufacturing, paper, food, wastewater treatment, and agricultural. Additional research is needed before considering its use for general air cleaning and removal of nonspecific contaminants.

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• Biofiltration Keyphrases 100%
• Air Pollution Control Technology Keyphrases 100%
• Air Pollution Control Engineering 100%
• Microorganisms Keyphrases 33%
• Agriculture Keyphrases 16%
• Biofilter Keyphrases 16%
• Occupational Health Keyphrases 16%
• Volatile Organic Compounds Keyphrases 16%

T1 - Evaluation of Biofiltration of Air - An Innovative Air Pollution Control Technology

AU - Janni, Kevin A.

AU - Maier, Walter J.

AU - Kuehn, Thomas H.

AU - Yang, Ching Hsu

AU - Bridges, Barry B.

AU - Vesley, Donald

AU - Nellis, Melissa A.

N2 - This paper summarizes a literature review on biofiltration and its capabilities for removing volatile organic compounds and inorganic pollutants from air. Biofiltration is an air pollution control technology that uses microorganisms to transform oxidizable vapors and gases into mostly innocuous end products. The reliance on microorganisms requires an appreciation of ecological principles and an understanding of microbial growth. Most biofilters treat air before it is exhausted to the atmosphere. Many of these systems have removal efficiencies greater than 90%. Biofiltration is cost competitive for removing biodegradable compounds at low concentrations. Costs increase as compound concentrations increase and treatability decreases. Potential occupational and public health aspects of biofiltration warrant further investigation. Biofiltration has been used as an air pollution control technology in numerous industries, including chemical, plastics, manufacturing, paper, food, wastewater treatment, and agricultural. Additional research is needed before considering its use for general air cleaning and removal of nonspecific contaminants.

AB - This paper summarizes a literature review on biofiltration and its capabilities for removing volatile organic compounds and inorganic pollutants from air. Biofiltration is an air pollution control technology that uses microorganisms to transform oxidizable vapors and gases into mostly innocuous end products. The reliance on microorganisms requires an appreciation of ecological principles and an understanding of microbial growth. Most biofilters treat air before it is exhausted to the atmosphere. Many of these systems have removal efficiencies greater than 90%. Biofiltration is cost competitive for removing biodegradable compounds at low concentrations. Costs increase as compound concentrations increase and treatability decreases. Potential occupational and public health aspects of biofiltration warrant further investigation. Biofiltration has been used as an air pollution control technology in numerous industries, including chemical, plastics, manufacturing, paper, food, wastewater treatment, and agricultural. Additional research is needed before considering its use for general air cleaning and removal of nonspecific contaminants.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1842435974&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=1842435974&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:0034819231

VL - 107 PART. 1

BT - ASHRAE Winter Meeting CD, Technical and Symposium Papers

T2 - ASHRAE 2001 Winter Meeting CD, Technical and Symposium Papers

Y2 - 1 January 2001 through 1 January 2001

Biofiltration: An Air Pollution Control Technology for Hydrogen Sulfide Emissions

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• Eric R. Allen 2 &
• Yonghua Yang 2  

Part of the book series: Industry-University Cooperative Chemistry Program Symposia ((IUCC))

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4 Citations

Traditional air polllution control technologies for pollutant gases, such as adsorption, absorption and combustion, were developed to treat high concentration waste gas streams associated with process emissions from stationary point sources. Although these technologies rely on established physico-chemical principles to achieve effective control of gaseous pollutants, in many cases the control technique yields products which require further treatment before disposal or recycling of treatment materials. In the case of treatment of dilute waste gas streams, however, these traditional methods are relatively less effective, more expensive and wasteful in terms of energy consumption; and identification of alternative control measures is warranted. A suitable alternate air pollution control technology is biofiltration, which utilizes naturally occurring microorganisms supported on a stationary bed (filter) to continuously treat contaminants in a flowing waste gas stream. This application of aerobic biodegradation has received considerable attention and use in Europe, particularly in Germany and Holland during the last 15 years. 1–21 In the United States, however, relatively little attention 22–29 has been paid to this emerging, innovative and versatile ‘low’ technology approach to solving current environmental problems in air quality.

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Eric R. Allen & Yonghua Yang

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Allen, E.R., Yang, Y. (1992). Biofiltration: An Air Pollution Control Technology for Hydrogen Sulfide Emissions. In: Sawyer, D.T., Martell, A.E. (eds) Industrial Environmental Chemistry. Industry-University Cooperative Chemistry Program Symposia. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2320-2_20

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[Research advances in microbial ecology of biofilter and biotrickling filter for waste gases treatment]

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Univerity, Hangzhou 310029, China. [email protected]
• PMID: 18062325

Waste gases biofiltration is an emerging technology, and has played important roles in air pollution control. In this paper, the structure of biofilter and biotrickling filter and their mechanisms in air pollution removal were introduced, with focus on the research advances in the isolation and identification of microbes in the filters, correlations between microbial abundance, activity and community diversity, influences of operation conditions on microbial community, spatiotemporal change patterns of microbial community structure during operation, development of biofilm, and biodegrading dynamic models. The research perspectives in microbial ecology during biofiltration of waste gases were discussed.

Publication types

• English Abstract
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Air Microbiology*
• Air Pollutants / metabolism*
• Air Pollution / prevention & control*
• Biodegradation, Environmental
• Filtration / instrumentation
• Air Pollutants

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