Petrochemical wastewater odor treatment by biofiltration

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2008.10.035

Bioresource Technology

Volume 100, Issue 7, April 2009, Pages 2204-2209

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2008.10.035 Get rights and content

Abstract

The treatment of odorous pollutants by microorganisms on packed waste straw and cortex was investigated at the wastewater treatment plant of the Shanghai petrochemical factory. The removal efficiency of H₂S, NH₃ and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) reached 98%, 91% and 90%, respectively after operation for one month at an empty bed retention time (EBRT) of 120 s. The heterotrophic bacteria were found to be the dominant microorganism in the biofilter, while fungi and actinomycetes were also present. The bacteria were mostly identified as the members of the genus Bacillus (62.5% of cultured bacteria). The single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) results revealed that the genus Bacillus and Pseudomonas were the predominant bacteria. The microbial diversity gradually increased as the treatment progressed, which indicated that the microbial community in the biofilter became more stable upon pollutant removal. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to evaluate the microorganism growth on the media. It was found that the waste straw and cortex were suitable for microorganism attachment and growth, and may have potential application in odor treatment.

Introduction

The odors generated from wastewater are secondary pollutants that can cause nuisance to adjacent residents and contribute significantly to atmospheric pollution (Burgess et al., 2001, Pandey et al., 2007). Biological treatment processes are promising techniques and have been widely applied to odor pollution control (Chen et al., 2005) due to their advantages in high efficiency, eco-friendliness, low energy consumption and low operating cost (Mc Dennis and John, 2003, Rappert and Müller, 2005).

Biofiltration is the most common biological odor treatment method (Tsang et al., 2007), in which the odorous components are removed by the indigenous microbes attached on the filter media (Langolf and Kleinheinz, 2006, Pandey et al., 2009). The performance of the biofilter is dependent on the nature of the filter media (Kennes and Veiga, 2001). The properties of both the microbial growth and the pollutant adsorption are essential for the filter media, as the pollutants have to be adsorbed on the filter media to be available for biological transformation. Although common filter media such as pall rings, activated carbon and polyurethane foam have the advantage of low head loss, large specific surface area and excellent solid phase adsorption of pollutants, the high investment and regeneration cost has limited their application (Martin et al., 2002). On the other hand, biomedia such as compost and soil are prone to clogging and channeling over long-term operation to cause high resistance and channeling flow (Leson and Winter, 1991, Abumaizar et al., 1998). Therefore, it is necessary to develop new types of biomedia for the effective and economic removal of odorous pollutants by biofiltration.

Microorganism plays a major role in the removal of odorous pollutants, and the understanding in the microbial structure and diversity is very important. Currently, a lot of molecular methods have been developed to study microbial communities, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) and SSCP. These new technologies have allowed deeper understanding in the population dynamics and the microorganism function of microbial communities in both natural and artificial systems (Muyzer, 1999, Sabine et al., 2000, Ogino et al., 2001). However, only limited information is available on the microbial communities involved in the biofiltration of odorous pollutants (Chung, 2007). Compared with other molecular methods, PCR-SSCP is more cost efficient (only the inexpensive electrophoresis equipment is needed) and operationally simple (Stach et al., 2000, Zumstein et al., 2000).

In the present study, the use of waste straw and cortex as the biomedia was investigated, and the performance of this biomedia in the removal of petrochemical odorous pollutants was systematically analyzed. The bacterial communities of the biofilter were examined by conventional microbial methods and the PCR-SSCP technique, and the growth of the microorganisms during the odor treatment was evaluated by SEM.

Section snippets

Biofiltration system

A pilot scale biofiltration system was set up at the wastewater treatment plant of the Shanghai petrochemical factory. The wastewater discharged from the factory contained benzene, phenol, sulphate, ammonia, oil, etc. The offensive odor of the wastewater mainly came from the VOCs (0.5–10.4 mg m⁻³), H₂S (0.01–2.78 mg m⁻³) and NH₃ (0.89–6.06 mg m⁻³).

The capacity of the biofiltration system was 500 m³ h⁻¹, and the bed volume of the biofilter was 18 m³. Therefore, the empty bed retention time (EBRT) was

The performance of the biofiltration treatment

According to Fig. 1a, the inlet H₂S concentration was 0.014–21.8 mg m⁻³, and the H₂S removal rate was >90% throughout the operation. The H₂S removal rate was >99% at the start of the operation, declined temporarily in the first week, then recover to >98% at the end of the first month. On the other hand, it is seen that the H₂S loading increased line with the inlet concentration, however, the removal rate increased with the loading increase as well. After 48 days of operation, the H₂S removal rate

Conclusions

The waste straw and cortex were used as the packing material in a biofiltration system to remove the petrochemical odorous pollutants. The removal rate of H₂S, NH₃ and VOCs reached to 98%, 91% and 90%, respectively at an EBRT of 120 s after operation for one month. The removal mechanism of H₂S and NH₃ was different to that of the VOCs.

The most abundant microorganism in the biofilter was found to be the heterotrophic bacteria, while fungi and actinomycetes were also present. The bacteria and

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by National High Technology “863” Project (2006AA06Z331) and National Key Technology R&D project (2007BAK27B05-03).

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Petrochemical wastewater odor treatment by biofiltration

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Biofiltration system

The performance of the biofiltration treatment

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

J. Hazard. Mater.

Biotech. Adv.

Chemosphere

J. Hazard. Mater.

Chemosphere

Water Res.

FEMS Microbiol. Ecol.

FEMS Microbiol. Lett.

Bioresour. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol.

Waste Manage.

Bioresour. Technol.

Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater

High bacterial diversity of a waste gas-degrading community in an industrial biofilter as shown by a 16S rDNA clone library

Environ. Microbiol.