Abatement robustness of volatile organic compounds using compact trickle-bed bioreactor: Biotreatment of styrene, ethanol and dimethyl sulfide mixture in contaminated airstream

A wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) chemical characteristics (aromatic, sulfur-containing organics and alcohol) were selected to demonstrate a prospective potential of the biotrickling technology in practical applications through the appropriate selection and combination of biological ‘agents’. The principal objective of this study was to specify operating boundaries of parameters at which the sampled microorganisms were most effective in the biodegradation of gaseous streams containing styrene, ethanol and dimethyl sulfide mixture at dynamic variations of pollutant load. The average conversion factor for the 3-component VOCs mixture was higher than 95% at lower range of the individual pollutant load and basically fell to 80% at middle range vs. 55% at the higher contaminant loads; however, the effectiveness of ethanol biodegradation is stable at the entire investigated range of the mass load. The consequences of an unexpected pollutant overload (media clogging) and the time necessary for the subsequent regeneration of the microbial community and restoring the process stability were investigated as well.