Biofilter for the purification of air contaminated with triethylamine (TEA)

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Chemistry - Bio-chemistry, , course: Master Degree, language: English, abstract: Modern air pollution control technologies have emerged over the past 40 years to mitigate emission problems in industrial facilities and thereby comply with environmental regulations. A variety of technologies have been developed to meet the needs of both the industries and the regulatory agencies keeping in view the techno economics. Some air pollutants like H2S, NH3 and VOC's are emitted in the industry causes odour and this not only causes occupational health but also damages public image of the company. Engineered biofiltration is a sustainable technology for VOC and odor control. Bio-filtration is a method of pollution control in which pollutants are biologically degraded using microorganisms. Generally, the energy demands for biofiltration are one-fourth to one-tenth that of physico-chemical destructive technologies.
Biofilters are being developed and effectively used for a wide variety of industries, including wood products, paint manufacturing, petroleum remediation etc. Biofilters are cost-effective and straightforward options for pollutants capable of biodegrading reasonably easily.
Triethylamine(TEA) is a Volatile organic compound widely used as a catalyst for polymerization reactions and a solvent and corrosion inhibitor in industry and it is also used as an intermediate in the production of various chemicals, including pesticides. It is necessary to remove TEA from water and gas in the environment. TEA gas-phase bio treatment has emerged as an effective and inexpensive alternative to conventional physicochemical treatment systems. The technology is still under development in terms of economics, equipment, process kinetics, and operational skills and different layouts and flow trains are being proposed including biofiltration, biotrickling filter, and bioscrubber. In the present work, studies are being carried out on biofilter contaminated with TEA. The contaminated gas is passed through a packed bed where TEA compound is absorbed into the biofilm in which diffusion and aerobic biodegradation occur simultaneously in a complex set of physical, chemical and biological interactions. Therefore, selection of suitable microbial consortia and biofilter configuration is very important from commercial perspective.