Streams Contaminated with Aromatic Compounds

Biofilteration is one of the most effective biological methods for treatment of polluted air stream containing low concentration of pollutant. The efficiency of this process mostly depends on the pore spaces structure in the biofilter medium. The previous models for this process were based on the transport and reaction equations in the continuum systems, not considering the effect of the pore spaces morphology, pore size and connection type. In this work, treatment of air stream contaminated with TEX (toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) was modeled using 3D pore network model and the effect of increasing biofilm thickness on the pore spaces morphology was considered. This model predicted the effect of biomass growth on bed clogging, flow channeling, and consequently on the pressure drop increasing and pollutant removal efficiency decreasing. Comparison between model results and experimental data show the reasonable agreement.