Effects of inoculum type, packing material and operating conditions on pentane biofiltration

Abstract

Biofilters are an interesting alternative to treat airstreams polluted with gaseous al-kanes from industrial activities. These hydrophobic compounds are difficult to treat bybacterial communities which are generally used in biofiltration. In this work, four fungalpopulations (3 consortia and Fusarium solani) were used as inocula in biofilters fortreating pentane and hexane. The biofilters were packed with inorganic and organic ma-terials (perlite and peat) and operated with the periodic addition of mineral medium atpH 4 supplemented with antibacterial agents to favor the development of fungi. To re-duce the lag phase, the biofilters were inoculated with active mycelia. Lower perfor-mance was obtained with the peat biofilters. Sustained 100 % removal efficiencies wereobtained with biofilters at an operation pentane load of G= 32.9 ± 8.1 g m–3 h–1. Maxi-mum elimination capacity of Cmax = 100 g m–3 h–1 was obtained with one of the fungalconsortia; this value is higher than those usually reported for pentane degrading bacterialbiofilters.