Volatile organic compound removal via biofiltration: Influences, challenges, and strategies

Biofiltration is an established technology for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from waste gas streams due to its cost-effectiveness, process safety, and environmentally soundness. However, the performance and applications of biofilters still need improving. In biofiltration for VOC removal, the performance could be affected by several design and operating factors, and there are some prevailing problems which need overcoming. In this article, the state of the art and development trends of biofiltration for VOC removal were comprehensively reviewed and commented on. First of all, the factors affecting the removal performance of VOCs by biofiltration were reviewed and presented which include the properties of VOCs and design and operating parameters of biofilters. Then, the prevailing problems in biofilters were summarized and discussed, such as the uneven distributions of biomass and VOC loads as well as nutrients, unsatisfactory removal for VOCs at high organic loads and with hydrophobility, and inconsistent interactions among multicomponent VOCs. At last, the corresponding solutions for the problems were proposed and commented on. This review could be referred for investigations and applications of biofiltration in future.

Automated summary

This article comprehensively reviews the application and performance issues of biofiltration in the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from waste gas streams. The removal performance of VOCs in biofiltration can be improved by adjusting the properties of VOCs and the design and operating parameters of biofilters. Prevailing problems in biofilters, such as uneven biomass and VOC load distribution, unsatisfactory removal at high organic loads and hydrophobicity, and inconsistent interactions among multicomponent VOCs, are summarized and discussed. Solutions for these problems are proposed and commented on. This review can serve as a reference for future investigations and applications of biofiltration.