The start-up period of styrene degrading biofilters

Styrene vapors from contaminated air were eliminated using long-term adapted mixed microbial culture inoculated on four perlite packed biofilters (serial arrangement, up-flow configuration). During start-up, the inlet concentration of styrene rose from 175 to 1,300 mg/cube m of total carbon. The total actual residence time in the four biofilters was 24 s. Styrene was successfully degraded by the microbial population in the biofilter. An average of 66 % of eliminated styrene was transformed to CO2. The removal efficiency of the pollutant was, after 18 d of start-up, nearly 85 % at an organic load of 170 g/cube m per h. The concentration profiles along the bed height were linear for various pollutant inlet concentrations. The total amount of microorganisms in analyzed biomass from the biofilters was about 10**9 per gram of dry packing mass. The moisture content was around 80 % in all biofilters.