BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF AIR CONTAMINATED WITH STYRENE Hee Wook Ryu1, Jaesoo Kim2, Kyung-Suk Cho2, Dong Jin Jung3, Tae Ho Lee3;
1Soongsil University, South Korea; 2Ewha Womans University, South Korea;
3Research Institute of Biological and Environmental Technology, South Korea
ABSTRACT
Styrene, a volatile organic compound (VOC), is an important industrial material. Air pollution by styrene and other VOCs can be considered a public health risk, and researchers are currently seeking new and improved control methods. Among a variety of emerging air pollution control technologies, biofiltration is an attractive option for the treatment of VOCs, because it is generally cost-effective and does not generate secondary contaminants. For the application to biofiltration, a styrene-degrading bacterium bacterium IS-3 was isolated from activated sludge and identified as Pseudomonas sp. Styrene degradation by this strain was tested in liquid cultures and polyurethane-packed biofilters. In liquid cultures, the rate of styrene degradation by this bacterium increased from 20 to 80 mol g-1DCW h-1 for an initial mass range from 8.7 to 34.8 mol. The maximum styrene elimination capacity was 580~635 g m-3 h-1 at a space velocity (SV) of 50~200 h-1. The critical elimination capacities guaranteeing 95% removal of the input styrene were determined to be 635, 170 and 38 g m-3 h-1, respectively, at SVs of 50, 100 and 200 h-1. Kinetic analysis revealed that the maximum styrene elimination velocity (Vm) for this biofilter was 1,000 g m-3 h-1, and the saturation constant (Km) was 454 ppmv. These results suggest that a polyurethane biofilter inoculated with Pseudomonas sp. IS-3 could have potential practical applications for the effective removal of styrene gas.
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