Utilization of biofilter/photo-catalytic reactor system for the simultaneous treatment of hydrogen sulfide and toluene from waste-air

Transient behavior of biofilter/photo-catalytic reactor system was observed to eliminate both hydrogen sulfide and toluene from waste air at its four sampling ports. The biofilter was packed with a equivolume mixture of granular activated carbon(GAC) and compost as packing media on which Thiobacillus sp. IW and Burkholderia cepacia G4 were inoculated and were fixed. The biofilter/photo-catalytic reactor system was run for eight stages of operation under various operating conditions. As a result the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide and toluene began to decrease from 100% after the inlet loads of hydrogen sulfide and toluene surpassed ca. 100 $S-g/m^{3}/h$ and $161g/m^{3}/h$, respectively, and were rapidly decreased to 60% after the inlet loads of hydrogen sulfide and toluene were increased to 200 $S-g/m^{3}/h$ and $644g/m^{3}/h$, respectively.

Hybrid시스템의 운전결과 황화수소의 removal efficiency는 황화수소의 inlet load가 $200g/m^{3}/h$에서 removal efficiency가 급격히 감소하여 약 60%의 수준을 유지하였다. 또한 톨루엔에 대한 removal efficiency는 거의 100%를 유지하다가 톨루엔의 inlet load가 $644g/m^{3}/h$로 증가할 때에는 약 60%로 감소하였다. 이와 같은 Hybrid시스템 운전결과로 부터 바이오필터만을 이용하여 황화수소와 톨루엔을 동시처리할 때보다 removal efficiency가 제고되었음이 관찰되었다.