Removal of Toluene Waste Gas by a Cross-flow Trickling Biofilter

In this paper,the cross-flow trickling biofilter was used to remove toluene from an artificial waste gas in order to resolve problems of the columned trickling biofilter,such as low effective zone,high pressure and easily clogging.The biofilter was inoculated with Pseudomonas Pudida and packed with biological ceramic pellets.The start-up process and the performance of the biofilter under different residence time and volumetric loading were studied.The effects of the temperature of nutrients on the removal capacity of the biofilter were also investigated.7 days were needed to start the biofilter.Complete toluene removal could be achieved when the residence time were 144s,72s,48s and 36 s and the maximum volumetric removal loading of 276.62g·m^-3·h^-1was achieved.The optimum temperature of nutrients was in the range of 28℃to 34℃.The results indicate that the cross-flow trickling biofilter inoculated with Pseudomonas Pudida is feasible and an effective treatment process to treat toluene waste gas.The special structure and operation of the cross- flow trickling biofilter can enhance the effective zone of the reactor and adjust the humidity of the reactor which is suitable to treat large volumes of volatile organic compounds.The change of residence time has little influence on the removal capacity of the biofilter which can be recovered quickly.To control the temperature of the nutrients we can adjust the environmental temperature of the microorganisms which could improve the removal efficiency effectively.