You are here:
PERFORMANCE OF TRICKLE BED BIOFILTERS UNDER HIGH TOLUENE LOADING
Citation:
Brenner, R., G. Sorial, F. Smith, A. Pandit, AND M. Suidan. PERFORMANCE OF TRICKLE BED BIOFILTERS UNDER HIGH TOLUENE LOADING. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/A-95/064.
Description:
The performance of two pelletized media biofilters, highly loaded with toluene, was evaluated in this study. oth biofilters were operated as the same influent concentration of 250 ppmv toluene. iofilter "A" was operated at 1 minute EBRT and biofilter "B" at 0.67 minute EBRT. he impact of backwash duration on performance was studied for both biofilters, primarily the stability of performance between backwashings. or a backwash period of 1 hour, both biofilters showed a decline in performance for the days following backwashing. or biofilter "A", the performance dropped from 96% to 90%. on the third day following backwashing. or biofilter "B", the performance dropped from 90% to as low as 71% on the third day. n the other hand, for a backwash period of 2 hours, both biofilters showed significantly less drop in performance for the days following backwashing. he performance of biofilter "A" was stable at a removal efficiency of 99% up to the second day following backwashing, but then dropped to 93% on the third day. or biofilter "B" the performance dropped from 90% to 79% on the third day following backwashing. his behavior indicated that increasing the backwash period from 1 to 2 hours was effective in improving the performance stability of both biofilters. his improved performance stability is due to reduction of short circuiting within the media, caused by accumulating biomass.