Sorption capacity of a new generation granular activated carbon—Bio-Sep® bead—and its use in a suspended growth bioreactor
✍ Scribed by Manmohan S Lal; Gregory J Thoma; Khursheed Karim
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 161 KB
- Volume
- 83
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-2575
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A new generation granular activated carbon—Bio‐Sep® beads—consist of 25% polymer (Nomex) and 75% powdered activated carbon. The porous structure and high surface area of these beads make them suitable for sorbent in adsorption columns, and for immobilization media in bioreactors. The aim of this study was to study the sorption characteristics of Bio‐Sep® beads for methyl t‐butyl ether (MTBE) and t‐butyl alcohol (TBA), and to demonstrate the advantage of their usage in a suspended growth bioreactor.
RESULTS: The maximum uptake capacity of Bio‐Sep® beads for MTBE and TBA, in the studied concentration range (10–100 mg L^−1^), was observed to be 9.73 and 6.23 mg g^−1^, respectively. A 52 h desorption experiment resulted in 13.6–42.2% MTBE and 33–53% TBA desorption corresponding to the initial solid phase concentrations of 1.68–9.73 mg g^−1^ and 1.41–6.23 mg g^−1^, respectively. The sorption of TBA on the Bio‐Sep® beads was significantly hindered by the presence of MTBE. The addition of 10 g Bio‐Sep® beads (dry weight) in a suspended growth bioreactor was able to eliminate the inhibitory effect of 150 mg L^−1^ MTBE.
CONCLUSIONS: At an equilibrium aqueous phase concentration (C~e~) of 1 mg L^−1^, the solid phase concentration (q~e~) on Bio‐Sep® beads were observed as 1.44 and 0.47 mg g^−1^ for MTBE and TBA, respectively. The results obtained in this study indicate that Bio‐Sep® beads have reasonable sorption and desorption characteristics, which can be successfully exploited for the removal/degradation of toxic organic pollutants in high rate bioreactors. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry