Control of gas contaminants in air streams through biofiltration
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals, AL (United States). Environmental Research Center
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the maximum styrene concentration allowed in the work place is 50 ppm for up to a 10-hour work day during a 40-hour work week. The US EPA has classified styrene as one of the 189 hazardous air pollutants listed under Title 3 of the Clean Air Act Amendments to be reduced by a factor of 90% by the year 2000. Significant quantities of styrene are emitted to the atmosphere each year by boat manufacturers. A typical fiberglass boat manufacturing facility can emit over 273 metric tons/year of styrene. The concentration of styrene in the industrial exhaust gas ranges from 20 to 100 ppmv. Such dilute, high volume organically tainted air streams can make conventional abatement technologies such as thermal incineration, adsorption, or absorption technically incompetent or prohibitively expensive. An efficient, innovative, and economical means of remediating styrene vapors would be of value to industries and to the environment. Biofilter technology depends on microorganisms that are immobilized on the packing material in a solid phase reactor to remove or degrade environmentally undesirable compounds contaminating gas streams. The technology is especially successful for treating large volumes of air containing low concentrations of contaminants. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using biofiltration to treat waste gas streams containing styrene and to determine the critical design and operating parameters for such a system.
- OSTI ID:
- 395330
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9505206-; TRN: IM9648%%453
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 50. Purdue industrial waste conference, W. Lafayette, IN (United States), 8-10 May 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 50. industrial waste conference; Wukasch, R.F. [ed.]; PB: 861 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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