title: [Use of biological activated carbon to degrade benzene and toluene in a biofilter].
abstract: The biodegradation of toluene and benzene in a biofilter using cylindrical activated carbon as the filler materials was studied. For total mass loading lower than 350 g/(h.m3), retention time ranging from 15 s to 90 s the biofilter proved to be highly efficient in biodegradation of toluene and benzene, their removal capacity were 120 and 150 g/(h.m3) respectively and toluene was more easily degraded than benzene. The CO2 produced increased with the degradation of benzene and toluene, but the experimental value was lower than the theoretical value. The observation of biotic community demonstrated that the microbes consisted of bacillus, spore bacillus and fungi, of them spore bacillus was dominant. According to basic theories of mass-transfer, adsorption and biodegradation process, mathematical model of removal of VOCs by biofiltration was established and verified.
authors.affiliation: ESPC, Department of Environment Science & Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Guowen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jiming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Heqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001554:Benzene / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002244:Carbon / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005374:Filtration; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014050:Toluene / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014050:Toluene; D002244:Carbon; D001554:Benzene