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Bioremediation of contaminated air using a bioscrubber

Article  in  Environmental engineering and management journal · May 2009

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 BIOREMEDIATION OF CONTAMINATED AIR USING A BIOCRUBBER

Fernando Jorge Santos Oliveira1*, Leonardo Vazquez2, Francisca Pessoa de França2

1
Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Gerência de Meio Ambiente, Av. Almirante Barroso, 81, 23˚ andar – Rio de Janeiro,
RJ – Brazil, 20.031-004.
2
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – Escola de Química, Dep. de Engenharia Bioquímica, 21.949-900,
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Abstract
This study examined the effect of hexane concentration in the inlet gas stream on the treatment
performance of a concentric tube internal loop airlift bioreactor with a 7 L capacity, inoculated with
a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The experiments were conducted employing hexane-
contaminated air, in 0.62, 1.26, 2.15 and 4.5 g/m3 concentrations at 29 ± 1˚C. The 100%
hydrocarbon removal was verified when effluents containing 0.62 and 1.26 g/m 3 of hexane were
employed. Under continuous feed conditions, the removal efficiency was approximately 55% and
35% after 288 process hours, when 2.15 and 4.5 g/m3 loads were employed, respectively. The tests
performed under discontinuous feed conditions employed positive and/or negative step variation.
Total contaminant removal from the effluent was verified in the 0.62, 1.26, 2.15, and 4.5 g/m 3
concentrations. Non-use periods of up to 3 hours did not influence the bioreactor performance. For
a 6.2 g/m-3 concentration, the treatment efficiency obtained was approximately 70%.

Keywords: airlift bioreactor, air pollution, bioscrubber, hydrocarbon, Pseudomonas aeruginosa

1. Introduction

Atmospheric pollution is one of the most critical contemporary problems. Apart from its
relation to the greenhouse effect, it is associated with an increase in the number of pathologies,
especially diseases related to the respiratory system (Abrantes et al., 1998; Aires, 1996; Brunekreef
and Holgate, 2002). Smith et al. reported that these diseases are the main cause of hospital
admissions and child deaths worldwide, and they estimated that 3 to 5 million children, fewer than 5
years old, die annually because of these diseases.
Among various substances that can contaminate the atmosphere, the volatile organic
compounds (VOC) comprise one of the most important groups due to their diversity, toxicity, and
the high quantity released into the environment (Devinni and Deshusses, 1999). Effluents
*
Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Gerência de Meio Ambiente, Av. Almirante Barroso, 81, 23˚ andar – Rio de Janeiro, RJ –
Brazil, 20.031-004. e-mail: f.oliveira@petrobras.com.br ,Tel. 55 21 32291372, Fax. 55 21 32291346

1
containing these compounds are traditionally treated in facilities that use physical and/or
physicochemical processes. These technologies present concern with safety, secondary pollutant
generation, and have applicability in a narrow organic content range. In this context, gas phase
bioreactors appear as interesting equipment for treating gaseous effluents because they do not
present these limiting factors and cause low costs. Besides, gas phase bioreactors could be used in
the treatment of effluents containing VOC of various natures, such as alcohols, ketones, aliphatic
and aromatic hydrocarbons (Devinni and Deshusses, 1999; Lu et al., 2001).
Basically, there are three configurations of gas phase bioreactors for the treatment of gas
effluents: biofilters, trickling biofilters, and bioscrubbers. Biofilters are fixed-bed reactors, where
the biomass is adhered and performs the biodegradation of the airstream contaminants. In the case
of trickling biofilters, water or liquid medium sprinkling occurs on the fixed bed, where the biomass
is adhered, for humidity correction and macronutrient supply. Addition of the liquid phase to the
bioreactor also aims to help the contaminant mass transfer from the gas phase to the biomass. The
bioscrubbers, however, present the biomass free in the liquid phase. In these bioreactors, the
treatment of the gas effluent containing VOC occurs in four stages: contaminant mass transfer from
the gas to the liquid phase; contaminant mass transfer from the liquid phase to the biomass;
biochemichal reaction stage, called biodegradation; and the metabolite mass transfer to the medium.
In general, the main advantages of bioscrubbers over biofilters or trickling biofilters are non-
formation of gas stream preferential flow pathways, and the non-obstruction of the filtration
medium due to biomass growth in the fixed-bed interstices. The biofilter application know-how for
treating gas effluents containing polar and non-polar VOC is also an advantage of this kind of gas
phase bioreactors. However, it is worth pointing out that the bioscrubbers can show high resistance
in the contaminant mass transfer to the water or polar liquid media, which can be a limiting factor
of the process.
The bioscrubbers can be grouped into two categories according to the number of vessels:
single-chamber and multiple-chamber equipment. The use of bioreactors with more than one
chamber aims to improve the performance of some bioscrubbers in treating effluents containing
gaseous non-polar VOC. In these types of equipment, the mass transfer from the gaseous phase to
liquid occurs in a primary chamber where tensoactive compounds, micronutrients, among other
substances are added. After that, the liquid phase enriched with VOC is directed to the second
chamber for biodegradation (Schroeder, 2002). In single-vessel bioscrubbers, the contaminant mass
transfer from the gaseous phase to liquid and the biodegradation occur in the same vessel. Most
reports concerning the use of single-vessel bioscrubbers are for treating gas streams containing
polar contaminants, such as phenols and alcohols (Wei et al., 1999). However, the absence of
movable mechanical parts in single-vessel free-phase bioreactors makes this category of

2
bioscrubbers very attractive because of lower manufacturing and maintenance costs. The single-
vessel bioscrubbers can also be classified according to the type of bioreactor employed: bubble
columns and airlift bioreactors, of either internal or external circulation.
Many industries can generate effluents containing aliphatic, and, therefore, non-polar
hydrocarbons, especially the food, petroleum, and petrochemical industries. Arulneyam and
Swaminathan (2000) estimate that 90% of the organic content present in gaseous effluents from the
food industry is related to hexane and ethanol. Both are colorless, flammable, and very volatile
liquids at room temperature; however, hexane presents toxicity, risk of serious damage to the
human neurological system, moderate biodegradability in biofilters, and is classified by the EPA as
a dangerous residue. These facts justify the development of treatment alternatives gaseous effluents
containing hexane. Besisde, Grosjean et al., (1998) and Hardman et al. (1999) reported atmospheric
contamination events related to this hydrocarbon, which also increased interesting for development
of efficient bioprocesses with attractive cost/benefit ratio, without supplementation of surfactans or
mass transfer favoring chemicals for treating gas streams containing this VOC.
In recent studies performed by our research group (Oliveira et al., 2005; Oliveira and de
França, 2005), we verified that the type of microorganisms and the initial cell concentration
influenced hexane removal from air stream with a 1.26 g/m3 concentration, employing an internal-
loop airlift bioreactor under continuous-feed conditions. In this work, the performance of this
bioscrubber with a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is investigated for the treatment of
contaminated air with different concentrations of hexane, operating under continuous and
discontinuous process condition for treating air stream with 1.26 to 6.2 g/m3 of hexane.

2. Material and methods

2.1. Microorganism

A strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from soil contaminated with crude oil was
adapted to hexane and employed in this work (Oliveira and de França, 2005). The microbial strain
was maintained in Nutrient agar (Difco laboratories, 0001) slants and stored at 40C.

2.2- Bioprocess and quantifications

The airlift bioreactor, developed by Oliveira and de França (Oliveira et al., 2005; Oliveira
and de França, 2005), was employed, and its details are shown in Fig. 1. The reactor was equipped
with a 0.005 m diameter air disperser, with a 12-hole perforated plate. Before beginning each

3
experiment, the equipment was cleaned with a 2% sodium hypochlorite (v/v) solution. Air was
allowed to pass through the equipment for an hour, the solution was removed, and the bioreactor
was rinsed with sterile distilled water. Aseptically, mineral medium was transferred to the
bioreactor. The medium was composed of (g/L): 0.5KH2PO4; 4.5Na2HPO4; 2.0NH4Cl; and
0.01MgSO4.7H2O. The medium pH was adjusted to 7.0 ± 0.2 employing a 10% (w/v) NaOH
solution.
Treated air stream

Out

Level of liquid

Water Computer
1.0 m
pH
d=0.032 m
0.8 m
d=0.094 m Valves
Clean Air
x x

Sampling port

Rotameter
Inffluent

Mixture chamber Hexane reservoir

Fig. 1: Scheme of the bioscrubber for hexane contaminated air treatment.

Air (21% Oxygen, 79% Nitrogen) was passed through a microbiological air filter, and
needle valves were employed, together with rotameters, for adjustment and flow control. Air was
also used to drag the hexane from a reservoir. In a mixture chamber, the contaminated air was
mixed with the dilution air and subsequently transferred to the bioreactor bottom, where the mineral
medium inoculated with the bacteria was contained.
All incubations to prepare inoculum for fermentation in 500 mL Erlenmeyer flasks
containing 100 mL mineral medium supplemented with 5 mL of hexane. To obtain sufficient cells
for parallel experiments each inoculum was proliferated twice starting from the cells stored on the
agar slopes. After 48 h incubation 1 mL of the broth from the first incubation was transferred into
freshly prepared mineral medium, supplemented with 5 mL of hexane to propagate for another 48 h.
An inoculum size of 0.2 g/L was applied throughout this study.
The experiments were conducted in continuous or discontinuous gas effluent feed. In the
case of air treatment under continuous feed conditions, the tests were performed on air

4
contaminated with 0.62 ± 0.1, 1.26 ± 0.1, 2.15 ± 0.2, and 4.5 ± 0.2 g/m3 of hexane at 29 ± 1˚C. In
the case of air treatment under discontinuous feed conditions, the tests were performed gaseous
influent at 0, 0.62 ± 0.1, 1.26 ± 0.1, 2.6 ± 0.2, 4.5 ± 0.2 and 6.2 ± 0.2 g/m3 of hexane. Three
scenarios were studied:
a) Scenario 1: Discontinuous inlet hexane concentration between 0 and 1.26 g/m3,
employing positive and negative step type variations.
b) Scenario 2: Discontinuous inlet hexane concentration between 0 and 2.6 g/m3, employing
positive and negative step type variations.
c) Scenario 3: Inlet air with hexane concentration varying in positive step form, employing
1.26; 2.1; 3.5; 4.5; and 6.2 g/m3 values.
When the 0 g/m3 concentration of hexane was employed, there was no air injection in the
bioreactor. The purpose of these tests was to study the effect of different short term non-use periods
on the bioprocess performance and to simulate minor maintenance stoppage. For all of the other
concentrations studied, constant effluent flow of 20 ± 1 mL/min was maintained.
During the experiments, some gas inlet and outlet samples were collected using a 5.0 mL
capacity syringe for gas sampling. The hexane detection in the gas stream was conducted with
samples of 1.0 mL that were injected into a mod. HP6890 plus HP gas chromatograph, equipped
with a flame ionization detector and an Al2O3 (30m x 0.25mm x 0.15m) capillary column HP
plotter, kept at 150 ˚C. Nitrogen was the carrier gas employed at a flow rate of 30 mL/min and a
temperature of 300 ˚C for the injector and the detector. For detection of hexane in the fermentation
medium, the samples were filtered with a membrane of 0.22 m, and 1 m was injected into the gas
chromatograph under the same chromatographic conditions. Hydrocarbon quantification was
performed from a previously established calibration curve.
Microorganism quantification was obtained through a relation between its dry weight and
absorbance at 420 nm in an Odyssey spectrophotometer from Hach. The relationship between
Absorbance reading at 420 nm and dry weight is linear, with a slope of about 0.52 g/L dry weight
per Absorbance unit.

3. Results and discussion

Industrial equipment for gas effluent treatment is generally subjected to different organic
content that may vary in a broad concentration range. Fig. 2 shows the biomass evolution during the
hexane-contaminated air treatment experiments under continuous feed conditions. The 0.62 and 1.2
g/m3 hexane concentrations in the inlet stream fostered similar cell growth. Under both conditions,
the biomass increased from 0.22 to around 0.85 g/L. Under these conditions, the adaptation period

5
did not occur, and the stationary period was achieved after 96 hours of process. When a continuous
inlet concentration of 2.15 g/m3 was employed, an adaptation period of approximately 96 hours and
a slow microbial growth between 120 and 240 h of process was observed, with a mean biomass
increasing of approximately 7.05 x 10-4 g/L. After 240 h of process, a higher velocity of microbial
growth occurred, and a mean of biomass increasing of approximately 3.84 x 10-3 g/L was achieved.
The employment of a continuous 4.5 g/m3 concentration increased the adaptation period to 216 h.
At 288 hours, a cellular concentration of approximately 0.32 g/L, which indicate low rate of cell
multiplication. The microbial growth data demonstrated that an increase in the hexane concentration
in the inffluent from 1.2 g/m3 to 2.15 and 4.5 g/m3 influenced microbial growth, probably due to the
adaptation of the microorganism to high contaminant concentrations or even to this hydrocarbon
toxicity. These allegations corroborate Mongenhort et al. (1996), as the other process variables such
as initial pH, initial cell concentration, and inffluent flow rate, were kept constant.

0.8
Biomass (g/L)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312
Time (h)

Fig. 2: P. aeruginosa concentration during experiments of air treatment contaminated with different
hexane concentrations: 0.62 (o); 1.2 (●); 2.15 (■); and 4.5 g/m3 (▲).

Analysis of Fig. 3 allows verification that the profiles of the air hydrocarbon removal
percentage were similar when effluents with 0.62 and 1.26 g/m3 hexane concentrations were
employed. In both cases, the removal increased significantly in the first 96 hours. From this point
on, total hydrocarbon removal was observed and kept practically constant throughout the monitored
time. When 2.15 and 4.5 g/m3 concentrations were employed, the air hydrocarbon removal
efficiency showed a profile of gradual increase. In the assays in which a 2.15 g/m 3 concentration
was employed, a removal percentage of up to 20% was verified during the first 120 hours. In the
period of 120 to 288 hours of process, removals of approximately 55% were achieved. In the assays

6
that employed a 4.5 g/m3 concentration, removals of up to 20% were achieved after 120 hours.
However, after 120 hours, a gradual increase in the removal percentage occurred, reaching 35%
after 288 h. This data is in accordance with the microbial growth profile, as a less significant
increase of the biomass was verified during the assays conducted with a higher organic inlet
concentration.

100
90
80
Treatment efficiency (%)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312
Time (h)

Fig. 3: Hexane removal percentage behavior from gas effluents during experiments for hexane
contaminated air treatment: 0.62(o); 1.2 (●); 2.15 (■); and 4.5 g/m3 (▲), employing P. aeruginosa
cells.

The hydrocarbon removal efficiency reduction that was observed can be related to bacteria
acclimatization to the new operational conditions or even to the toxic effects of the hexane when
present in the medium at a higher concentration of approximately 17 mg/L, as shown in Fig. 4.
Analysis of Fig. 4 also allows verification that, in the assays conducted with the lowest organic inlet
concentration, hydrocarbon concentration in the liquid medium significantly decreased after the first
24 h of process. The employment of 2.15 and 4.5 g/m3 inlet concentration promoted an
accumulation of hexane in the medium that may have contributed to the reduction of the removal
percentage, probably due to the contaminant toxicity (Devinny and Deshusses, 1999; Morgenhort et
al., 1996). Therefore, the inlet organic concentration can influence the performance of the
bioscrubber under study, which corroborates the allegations of Moe and Qi (2004) regarding the
importance of the admitted inlet organic concentration control and the microbial acclimatization
during the conduction of the gaseous effluent treatment process.

7
 20

Hexane (mg/L) 15

10

0
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312
Time (h)

Fig. 4: Hexane concentration behavior in the liquid medium during experiments for hexane
contaminated air treatment: 0.62(o); 1.2 (●); 2.15 (■); and 4.5 g/m3 (▲), employing P. aeruginosa
cells.

Fig. 5 shows the pH values behavior in the medium during the assays of the treatment of
effluent contaminated with different quantities of hexane. On the one hand, pH values in the liquid
remained in the neutral range, regardless of the initial cell concentration.
7.5

7.3

7.1
pH

6.9

6.7

6.5
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312
Tempo (h)

Fig. 5: Behavior of medium pH values during experiments for hexane contaminated air treatment:
0.62 (o); 1.2 (●); 2.15 (■); and 4.5 g/m3 (▲), employing P. aeruginosa cells.

It is known that pH neutrality is favorable for hydrocarbon degradation by bacteria. On the other
hand, Cravo (1996) reports a decrease of the pH in the medium during hydrocarbon degradation in a
mineral medium, which was related to intermediary acid formation during the hydrocarbon
metabolism. The medium pH remaining in the neutral range during the assays of air treatment can
be related to the buffering capacity of the mineral medium used, or even to the consumption of
these intermediary-forming products with neutral pH. This contributes to the hypothesis that the
8
increase in the hexane concentration in the medium was an important factor in biotreatment
efficiency reduction. Popov and Bezborodov (1999) reported that organic concentration in gaseous
effluents could be situated between 0.1 and 1000 g/m3. Biological equipment is recommended for
treatment of air stream presenting low to medium organic content and when there is no intention of
recovery of those chemicals. The results now presented demonstrate the importance of the inlet
concentration of the pollutant for adequate bioscrubbing under continuous feed conditions.
Some processes can emit effluents with a discontinuous organic compound concentration
through time, which increase interest to investigate the performance of the bioscrubber in such
process conditions. Figs. 6a-c and 7 show the treatment performance of gas effluent contaminated
with hexane under discontinuous inlet hexane concentration feed. Fig. 6a shows the bioreactor
stabilization stage when the bioreactor was submitted to a gas influent with constant 0.6 g/m 3 inlet
concentration. The 100% removal occurred after 120 h of process, and remained stable after that.
The operational conditions described in scenario 1 started after 240 h of operation, (Fig. 6b). The
increase of the inlet concentration from 0.6 g/m3 to 1.26 g/m3 did not influence removal efficiency,
which remained at 100%. The inlet concentration decrease to the initial value (0.6 g/m3) did not
influence the microbial metabolism, and the same was observed with the bacteria after remaining
for 2 h in absence of contaminated air followed by the reestablishment of the feed with an effluent
containing 1.26 g/m3 of hexane. In Fig. 6c (scenario 2), we can observe that the hexane removal
was 100% when inlet hexane concentration values were varied and intercalated with effluent non-
feed periods. It is important to highlight that under the maximum concentration studied (2.6 g/m3), a
small decrease in efficiency occurred; however, the microorganism started to develop metabolism
for total degradation of the contaminant.
Stability in bioreactor performance after gas influent non-feed periods may be related to the
maintenance of bacteria metabolism through reserve material consumption. It is worth noting that
during the effluent feed stop, anoxic periods occurred that also permitted P. aeruginosa survival, as
it is a facultative bacterium. Maintaining bioprocess performance after non-use periods indicates
that this bioscrubber can be used in processes that generate gas effluent in specific periods of the
day or in the maintenance stoppage case, which restricts the inlet hexane supply. The small effect of
the influent concentration variation on the bioprocess performance developed in this work
corroborates other works (Al-Rayes, 2001; Moe and Qi, 2004; Wani et al. 1998; Wani et al., 2000).
The authors studied biofilter performance for treating effluents containing VOC foreseeing
fluctuation and non-use periods. They reported a good performance, and they related it to the
success of the adaptation and stabilization stages.

9
 100 0.7

Inlet hexane concentracion (g/m3)

0.6
80

Tratament efficiency (%)

0.5
60
0.4

40
0.3

20
0.2
(a)
0 0.1
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240
Time (h)

100 1.4

Inlet hexane concentration (g/m3)

1.2
80
Tratament efficiency (%)

60
0.8

0.6
40

0.4
20
0.2
(b)
0 0
240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252
Time (h)

100 3
Inlet hexane concentration (g/m3)

2.5
80
Treatment efficiency (%)

2
60
1.5
40
1

20
0.5
(c)
0 0
240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252
Time (h)
Fig. 6: Bioscrubber treatment efficiency as function of hexane concentration: (■) Inlet hexane
concentration; (●) Treatment efficiency
(a) Stabilization period,
(b) and (c) treatment under discontinous process conditions (scenario 1 and 2)

10
 Unlike what occurs in the biofilters for the treatment of gas effluents, the microorganisms
present in the bioreactor under study are dispersed in the liquid phase and, therefore, are not
protected by the polysaccharide matrix composing the biofilms (Devinny and Deshusses, 1999;
Moe and Qi, 2004). The polysaccharide biofilm structures in the biofilters reduce medium
aggressions, such as high organic inlet concentration and heavy metals presence. In addition, they
can be used as reserve material for the cells.

7
6.5
Inlet hexane concentration (g/m3)

6
5.5
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
1.6 100

1.4 90

80
1.2

Tratament efficiency (%)

70
Biomass (g/L)

1
60

0.8 50

40
0.6
30
0.4
20
0.2 10

0 0
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312 336 360 384 408 432 456
Time (h)

Fig. 7: Bioscrubber treatment efficiency during successive increase in inlet hexane concentration
(scenario 3): (▲)Biomass; (■) inlet hexane concentration; and (●) Treatment efficiency.

The events of hexane concentration variation also attempted to simulate conditions of abrupt
reduction in the contaminant concentration in inlet gas stream, effluent feed stops, or even an
efficiency improvement of primary treatment systems. The disturbances in inlet organic
concentration reduction and non-use periods did not influence treatment efficiency since, when the
equipment was once again submitted to different concentration of the contaminant, it kept its full
hydrocarbon removal capacity. Therefore, the maintenance of the bioprocess performance in the

11
face of the organic inlet concentration variations in the influent indicated its stability and
applicability for the treatment of streams with fluctuations in the contaminant feed under the studied
values.
Fig. 7 shows the treatment efficiency and the biomass data when the bioreactor was
submitted to scenario 3, that is, to hexane variation in the inlet gas stream in positive step with 1.26;
2.1; 3.5; 4.5; and 6.2 g/m3. The analysis of the microbial growth profile allows us to verify that the
adaptation period did not occur. The employment of the 1.26 g/m3 of hexane permitted the
experiment to reach the stationary phase of the process after 120 h, in which total organic removal
and a biomass of 0.8 g/L was verified. After 170 h of process, the inlet hexane concentration was
increased from 1.26 to 2.1 g/m3 and was kept at this value until reaching 240 h of process. This
way, the biomass suffered an increase from 0.8 to 1.15 g/L, which is less significant than the growth
observed in the stablization period (0 to 170 h). After 241 hs of process, the hexane concentration
was increased to 3.5 g/m3 and was kept at this value until 312 h. were reached. It is important to
highlight that these disturbances did not influence the bioprocess treatment efficiency that the total
hydrocarbon removal continued to exhibit. After 313 h of process, a new increase in the hexane
concentration of the inlet gas stream was induced. In this case, 4.5 g/m 3 of hexane were used,
which caused an increase of the biomass from 1.28 to 1.42 g/L. In this case, the hexane inlet
concentration increase caused a reduction in the treatment efficiency to values around 92%. An
hour after the disturbance, a removal efficiency of 96% was achieved, and in the next hour, 98.5%.
These results indicate that the process needed a three-hour period after the disturbance to become
stable and to reestablish the total removal and stationary phase of the process. The employment of a
6.2 g/m3 in 398 h of process caused a small biomass increase from 1.41 to 1.46 g/L. This increase in
the hydrocarbon concentration in the inlet gas stream induced a removal profile different from the
others. In this case, a reduction in the treatment removal efficiency to approximately 40% was
observed. It is important to point out that a gradual increase in the air hydrocarbon removal
percentage occurred over time and was approximately 70% two hours after the disturbance. These
results show the bioscrubber robustness for the studied effluent treatment and indicate the need for
contaminant inlet concentration control in the bioprocess. The 6.2 g/m3 proved to be detrimental to
the bioprocess performance, which started emitting a gas stream containing 1.9 g/m3 of hexane and
showed an increase in the time needed for acclimatization after the disturbance. It is convenient to
note that this inlet organic concentration reduction corresponded to approximately 70% of the
treatment efficiency, indicating that the proposed bioprocess is very promising. The treatment
efficiency can be improved by employing, for example, bioscrubbers in series or equipment for the
equalization of the feed. The procedure for reduction of contaminant concentration before the final
treatment is very common in liquid effluent treatment facilities and helps in increasing bioprocess

12
treatment efficiency (Davis and Cornwell, 1998). This procedure is recommended when we want to
remove biologically toxic or hydrophobic compounds.
There are few works published that deal with the treatment of hexane-contaminated air
(Fazaelipoor, 2006; Kibazoni et al., 2004; Spigno et al., 2003). Spigno et al. (2003) reported a
treatment efficiency of around 70 to 80% for a system comprised of two biofilters operating in
sequential mode, inoculated with the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger, for the treatment of air
contaminated with 2 to 7 g/m3 of hexane. Kibazohi et al. (2004) reported total hydrocarbon removal
when employing biofilters packed with perlite, inoculated with activated sludge adapted to the
hydrocarbon. An interesting investigation was carried out by Fazaelipoor et al. (2006), using two
equal-size biofilters with perlite as the packing material inoculated with a mixed consortium. These
authors reported that hydrocarbon removal was favored by silicon amendment due to contaminant
affinity to non-polar substances. It was also reported that hexane removal efficiency drastically
decreased when the inlet contaminant concentration was varied from 1.5 to 3.4 g/m 3. In these three
studies, the treatment efficiency did not remain constant over time; however, in these cases the
trend was a decrease in removal during the operation. So, the studied bioscrubber is a promising
process for hexane contaminated airstreams, because it is able to maintain the contaminant removal
efficiency under studied continuous and discontinuous conditions and does not require
supplementary mass transfer favoring chemicals, resulting in lower cost as compared to biofilters. It
is also important to note that, in the literature consulted, there were no works investigating the effect
of the inffluent hydrocarbon concentration on the efficiency of gas stream treatment employing an
airlift bioreactor.

4. Conclusions

The results of this study indicate that the developed bioscrubber inoculated with a strain of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is able to remove hexane from airstreams under continuous and
discontinuous process conditions. It was also verified that, after the bioscrubber stablization period,
inlet concentrations of hexane ranging from 0.6 to 2.6 g/m3 as well as non-use periods up to 6h do
not influence the bioreactor treatment efficiency. Total hydrocarbon removal was observed during
the experiments with successive increase in inlet hexane from 0.6 to 4.5 g/m 3. However, a
subsequent increase in the hexane inlet concentration from 4.5 to 6.2 g/m3 led to a decrease in
treatment efficiency from 100% to about 68%. These results clearly demonstrate that the presented
bioscrubber is a promising and interesting alternative for the treatment of hexane-contaminated
airstreams.

13
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Agência Nacional de Petróleo (ANP/PRH-13), to the Conselho
Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and to the Coordenação de Apoio
ao Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support. Special thanks to Prof. Letícia M.
Valle and to Ms. Cláudia Cristina for the chromatographic determinations.

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