Development of a Biofilter with Tire-Derived Rubber Particle Media for Hydrogen Sulfide Odor Removal

The biofilter system containing tire-derived rubber particle (TDRP) filter media was utilized to treat the odorous gas contaminant, hydrogen sulfide, in consideration of the economic advantage of reusing discarded tire materials and the high potential of TDRP media for biofilm attachment. The pilot-scale system having 0.38 m³ of bed volume operated with synthetic hydrogen sulfide gas on continuous basis from a range of 0.34 to 1.15 m³/min. This bioreactor system achieved over 94% removal efficiency at 20-90 ppm of inlet H₂S concentration while operating in 20-67 s of empty bed retention time, indicating that overall effective operation was performed at mass loading rates of H₂S ranging from 19.6 to 28.5 g H₂S/(m³ h). It was apparent by the effectiveness of the system's performance that this system had the capability to effectively remove hydrogen sulfide with high efficiency over a range of concentrations. A maximum elimination capacity was not found for the biofilter during this study, which tested loading rates between 0 and 30 g H₂S/(m³ h).