Biological purification of exhaust air using fixed bacterial monocultures

Summary

This paper presents the results of basic investigations on reactions and process engineering in the biological purification of exhaust air in a trickle-bed reactor. The biocatalysts used were pollutant-specific bacterial monocultures, which were immobilized on various carriers. By using different pollutants (e.g. acetone, propionaldehyde, naphthalene and toluence, crude gas concentrations: 5–35 ppm), the effect of the water solubility of the gaseous substances on separation efficiency was studied. Furthermore, a combination of monocultures was used for degradation of a mixture of pollutants. The results show that, with suitable combinations of bacteria, pollutants and carriers, conversions of more than 80% at a space velocity of about 1000^-1 can be achieved by this method.