Treatment of malodorous air in biotrickling filters: A review

Odour nuisance, resulting mainly from the presence of the compounds containing osmophore group and characterized by low olfactory threshold, is associated with danger and may be the cause of negative psychosomatic symptoms. Among different methods of malodorous air treatment, biological methods are of importance, mainly due to reduced operating costs, high purification efficiency of voluminous gas streams characterized by low concentrations of odorants and minute secondary pollution. Recently, biotrickling filtration has been one of the most attractive biological technique of air deodorization. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art on biotrickling filtration and special attention is paid to the methods for evaluation of the process performance. The review presents the range of odorous chemical compounds that may be removed from air in BTFs, highlighting the strategies for the removal of hydrophobic odorous air pollutants. The paper is focused on the literature references regarding biotrickling filtration for the years 2010-2018.