title: Biofiltration of mixtures of gas-phase styrene and acetone with the fungus Sporothrix variecibatus.
abstract: The biodegradation performance of a biofilter, inoculated with the fungus Sporothrix variecibatus, to treat gas-phase styrene and acetone mixtures under steady-state and transient conditions was evaluated. Experiments were carried out by varying the gas-flow rates (0.05-0.4m(3)h(-1)), leading to empty bed residence times as low as 17.1s, and by changing the concentrations of gas-phase styrene (0.01-6.3 g m(-3)) and acetone (0.01-8.9 g m(-3)). The total elimination capacities were as high as 360 g m(-3)h(-1), with nearly 97.5% removal of styrene and 75.6% for acetone. The biodegradation of acetone was inhibited by the presence of styrene, while styrene removal was affected only slightly by the presence of acetone. During transient-state experiments, increasing the overall pollutant load by almost 3-fold, i.e., from 220 to 600 g m(-3)h(-1), resulted in a sudden drop of removal efficiency (>90-70%), but still high elimination capacities were maintained. Periodic microscopic observations revealed that the originally inoculated Sporothrix sp. remained present in the reactor and actively dominant in the biofilm.
authors.affiliation: University of La Coruña, Dpt. of Chemical Engineering, Campus da Zapateira, Rua da Fraga, 10, 15008 La Coruña, Spain.
authors.forename: Eldon R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Rene
authors.affiliation: University of La Coruña, Dpt. of Chemical Engineering, Campus da Zapateira, Rua da Fraga, 10, 15008 La Coruña, Spain.
authors.forename: Radka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Špačková
authors.affiliation: University of La Coruña, Dpt. of Chemical Engineering, Campus da Zapateira, Rua da Fraga, 10, 15008 La Coruña, Spain.
authors.forename: María C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Veiga
authors.affiliation: University of La Coruña, Dpt. of Chemical Engineering, Campus da Zapateira, Rua da Fraga, 10, 15008 La Coruña, Spain. Electronic address: kennes@udc.es.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kennes
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018441:Biofilms; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods*; D005740:Gases; D013175:Sporothrix / Q000378:metabolism*; D020058:Styrene / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D000096:Acetone; D020058:Styrene