The removal of methyl ethyl ketone in an essentially gaseous-phase biofilm bioreactor : aspects of dynamic behavior and the influence of operating characteristics

In the work reported here, the removal of methyl ethyl ketone from waste gases in a novel bioreactor type was studied experimentally within the pollutant loading range of 0.35 to 16.2 kg mr-3 d-1. The solvent eliminating performance of the bioreactor described in this paper is reflected by a maximum methyl ethyl ketone elimination capacity ECmax = 4.2 kg mr-3 d-1. The effect of the pH was studied. A nutritive medium with pH=7.3 appeared to give better system performances than a solution with pH = 6.8. Moreover, the effects of air and liquid flow rates were studied. The reduction of either the gas or liquid flow rates led to a significant improvement of the degradative capacity of the system suggesting mass transfer limitation. Finally, selected aspects of the dynamic behavior of the dry tubular bioreactor have been investigated