Treatment of pollutant emissions in a biotrickling filter with a moving bed – pilot verification

Abstract

This study was aimed at testing a possibility of using a biotrickling filter with a moving bed for simultaneous treatment of waste air and waste water. For those purposes a laboratory biotrickling filter with a moving bed was constructed. After inoculating of the laboratory biotrickling filter long-term organic load tests were performed aimed at finding the maximum organic load of biotrickling filter which the biotrickling filter is operated with with high efficiency. The aim of the second test was testing the possibility of simultaneous removal of some odour compounds from waste air and waste water treatment. On the basis of operating parameters of the laboratory biotrickling filter and results of the long-term organic load tests two pilot biotrickling filters with a moving bed were designed and constructed. Subsequently they were installed in operating conditions in production of driving wheels and in a farm. The efficiency of removal of organic compounds for organic load (OL 35 resp. 30 gc.m-3filtre media.h-1) in laboratory resp. operating conditions was about 96%. Simultaneous waste air and waste water treatment increased stability of the biotrickling filter and enabled removal of ammonia from the waste air whereas the efficiency removal of organic pollution waste water expressed as COD achieved 90%. The results confirmed suitability of using the biotrickling filter with moving bed for simultaneous waste air and waste water treatment.