Modelling and kinetic aspects of a BTEX contaminated air-treating biofilter

Abstract

In this study, the overall performance of a biofilter was evaluated in terms of its elimination capacity by using 3-D mesh techniques. The overall results indicate that the agreement between experimental data and model predictions is excellent for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and o-xylene (BTEX). In this study, the maximum removal rate (r _max) values for BTEX were 0.0117, 0.0126, 0.0081 and 0.0146 g m^–3 h^–1, and the half-saturation constant (K_S ) values were calculated to be 0.269, 0.297, 0.156 and 0.394 g m^–3, respectively. For this system, the coefficients of determination (r ²) of BTEX compounds were greater than 0.97. The BTEX concentration profiles along the depth were also determined using a convection–diffusion reactor (CDR) model. The sums of squares of the errors (SSEs) of BTEX were 0.0078, 0.0059, 0.0129 and 0.0269, respectively, with r ² values greater than 0.99 for all four compounds at low concentrations.

Keywords:

• Biofiltration
• BTEX vapour
• CDR model
• Kinetics

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the reviewers for their useful comments. The authors are very thankful to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India for providing financial support to undertake the work.