Modeling the biofiltration of dimethyl sulfide in the presence of methanol in inorganic biofilters at steady state.
The presence of methanol (MeOH) improves DMS removal (up to 11-fold) by enhancing biomass growth in inorganic biofilters. Although the overall effect is positive, prolonged growth on methanol also negatively affects DMS degradation as a result of competition with DMS. The objectives of this study were to explore the potential to optimize DMS removal with methanol addition and to develop and experimentally validate a mathematical model describing the biofiltration of DMS in the presence of MeOH. Continuous experiments using three bench-scale biofilters packed with inorganic material were performed to examine the removal of DMS under different MeOH addition rates ranging from 0 to 140 g/m3/h. For a constant DMS loading of 3.5 g/m3/h, a maximum DMS removal rate of 1.8 g/m3/h was achieved at a MeOH addition rate of 20 g/m3/h in the inorganic biofilters. A steady-state model incorporating the competitive and activation effects of MeOH on DMS biodegradation was developed, and the modeled results on DMS and MeOH removal were in close agreement with experimental data. Both the experimental data and model simulation suggest that there is an optimum MeOH addition rate for a given DMS loading. A step-feeding strategy for MeOH addition was proposed and tested by the model to optimize DMS removal. The model-predicted results demonstrate that six-step feeding of MeOH enhances DMS treatment by 46% in the biofilters when compared to conventional feeding (one-step) of MeOH at the same total mass loading.
Zhang
Yuefeng
Y
Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Allen
D Grant
DG
Liss
Steven N
SN
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods*; D000432:Methanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D008851:Micropore Filters / Q000382:microbiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013440:Sulfides / Q000378:metabolism*
D013440:Sulfides; C004784:dimethyl sulfide; D000432:Methanol