OCE551

AIR POLLUTION AND

CONTROL ENGINEERING
 UNIT IV
CONTROL OF GASEOUS
CONTAMINANTS
Topics
Factors affecting Selection of Control
Equipment
Absorption
Adsorption
Condensation
Incineration
Bio Filters
Process control and Monitoring
Control of gaseous pollutants
The important gases which create pollution in
air are sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon
oxides, organic and inorganic acidic gases
and hydro carbons.
For the control of above gases, the
mechanisms used are
 Adsorption
 Absorption
 Condensation
 Combustion
 Mass transfer
Absorption
Absorption is a chemical process in which the
molecules atoms and ions of the substance
getting absorbed enters into the bulk phase
(gas, liquid or solid) of the material in which it
is taken up.
Absorption is the chemical process in which
atoms or molecules, transfer from one
(generally a gas) phase into another (generally
a liquid) phase.
In absorption molecules are taken up by the
volume, not by the surface.
Absorption
The principle of gas absorption is a gas-
liquid contacting process for gas separation
that utilizes the preferential solubility or
chemical reactivity of the pollutant gas in the
liquid phase.
Applications
Absorption technology has been used in the
control of gases such as SO, NO, H2S, HCl,
Cl2, NH3 and HC.
Removal of HCs by absorption is employed in
many industries, like asphalt batch plants,
varnish and resin cookers, coffee roasters and
petroleum units.
Absorption is also used for recovery of
valuable by-products like acetic acid, formic
acid, chloroform, amines and ketones etc.
Efficiency of absorption units
Efficiency of absorption depends upon the,
Surface contact between the gas and the
liquid
Time for which the gas is allowed to remain
in contact with the liquid.
Concentration of the absorbing media
Speed of reaction between the absorbent and
the gas.
Absorption units
Gas absorption is commonly conducted in
equipment which is designed to provide intimate
contact between the two phases.
The contact between gas and liquid can be
accomplished by dispersing the liquid in the gas
or vice versa.
Absorption units include the following devices.
 Spray towers
 Plate towers
 Packed towers
 Venturi scrubbers
Spray towers
 In the spray towers the flow
arrangements are normally
countercurrent and cross
flow. The liquid is
introduced by spray nozzles
or other atomizing devices
which form droplets. These
droplets provide mass
transfer surface
 Spray towers are used for
absorption of highly soluble
gases and solid particles
when these are present in
the gas.
Spray towers
Working:
 Absorption units work on the principle of transfer of the
pollutants from the gas phase to the liquid phase.
 The pollutants from the dirty gas, gets absorbed by the liquid,
through which the gas is allowed to pass, in the absorption
units. Such absorption takes place by diffusion and dissolution.
 When water is used as the solute, some of the inorganic gases
like NH3, Cl2 and SO2 are only removed.
 Proper design is to be followed for the effective and safety
utilization of any absorbent units before implementation.
Utmost care should be taken to control the water pollution,
due to the transfer of air to water.
 The important disadvantage of the tower units is clogging by
particulate matter, frequently.
Packed towers
 Packed towers are very effective
absorption devices involving a
continuous contact of two phases.
These use a variety of packing
materials ranging from specially
designed ceramic packing to
crushed rock.
 The liquid is distributed over the
packing, which provides high
interfacial surface are and flows
down the packing surface in the
form of thin films or subdivided
streams.
 Normally the liquid and gas flow
countercurrent to each other, the
flowing upward and the liquid
flowing downward.
Packed towers
The use of packed towers is limited to clean gases, as
any precipitate or slurry will cause plugging of
packing.
In packed tower, the dust laden gas is passed upward
through bed, keeping it clean and preventing the re
entering of the deposited particles.
The collecting surface are should be relatively large.
The materials used in the collecting surface should
have low density, resistant to corrosion and chemically
inert.
Generally ceramic saddles, stoneware shapes, coke,
reaching rings are used as packing materials in packed
towers
Plate towers (Tray towers)
 In plate towers, stepwise contact
between the liquid and gas
occurs. Liquid introduced at the
top cascades from one stage to
another and eventually is
withdrawn from the bottom of
the tower.
 The gas flows in a
countercurrent direction to the
dropping liquid.
 At each tray, gas passes through
small holes drilled in the tray or
under slotted caps immersed in
the liquid, forming bubbles.
 Absorption takes place during
the bubble formation and their
ascent through the liquid.
Venturi Scrubbers
Venturi scrubbers can
clean about 400 liters of
gas per minute.
Generally, the mist can
be removed by the
venturi scrubbers
followed by cyclonic
separators.
It mainly consists of a
venture-throat, through
which the gas pushes at
a velocity of 3400 to
12,600 m/min
Venturi Scrubbers
Generally the scrubbing liquid (water) is used and it is
added in the direction of flow of gas at a rate of 0.3 to
1.5 liters of gas per minute.
The scrubbing liquid (water) is introduced at the
throat portion, with nozzles. The efficiency of the
venturi scrubbers varies with the input of power and it
will be high up to 99% even for small sized particles.
Venturi scrubbers can work for abrasive, corrosive and
high-temp gases, if it is made up of good quality and
the suitable materials.
Scrubbers are generally less effective in eliminating
the gaseous pollutants than the tower units.
Adsorption
Adsorption is defined as the process of
accumulating substances that are in solution
on a suitable interface.
Adsorption is a mass transfer operation, in
that a constituent in the liquid phase is
transferred into solid phase.
The adsorbate is the substance that is being
removed from the liquid or gaseous phase at
the interface.
The adsorbent is the solid, liquid or gas
phase onto which adsorbate accumulates.
Adsorption
The difference between absorption and the
adsorption is that in absorption the molecules
are taken up by a liquid (absorbent, solvent),
while for adsorption the molecules are fixed
onto solid surfaces.
In adsorption units, the dirty gases are
allowed to pass through the beds of
adsorbent materials, in which gaseous
pollutants are completely adsorbed and
removed.
Factors affecting adsorption process
The adsorption process depends on the following factors
 Total surface are of the adsorbent
 Temperature
 Presence of other molecules in the environment which may
compete for a place on the adsorbent.
 Concentration of the material in the space around the
adsorbent.
 Micro structure of the adsorbing surface (i.e., sizes and
shapes of pores)
 Chemical nature of the adsorbent surface including
electrical polarity and chemical activity.
 Characteristic of the molecules to be absorbed (weight,
electrical polarity, chemical activity, size and shape etc.,)
Adsorbent
Various adsorbents used in adsorption units
are,
Activated carbon
Molecular sieves
Activated alumina
Silica gel
Activated carbon
Activated carbon consists of particles of moderately
to highly pure carbon with a large surface are per
unit weight or volume of solid.
It is made by the carbonization of coal, wood, fruit
pits, petroleum residues and coconut or other nut
shells.
It consisting largely of neutral atoms of a single
species, presents a surface with a relatively
homogeneous distribution of electric charge.
Hence, activated carbon is effective in adsorbing
molecules of organic substances with less selectivity
than is exhibited by other more polar sorbents.
Activated carbon
Activated carbon is effective in adsorbing
organic molecules even from a humid gas
stream.
The activity is a measure of the maximum
amount of a vapour that can be adsorbed by a
given weight of carbon under specified
conditions of temp, conc of vapour.
More toxic hydro carbons, hydrogen sulphide
and sulphur dioxide can be effectively
removed by the adsorption techniques by
using activated carbon bed
Molecular sieves
Molecular sieves
Molecular sieves have recently been developed for
the control of SO2, NOx and Hg emissions.
These can be natural crystalline zeolites or
synthetic metal hydrates of calcium, sodium,
magnesium, potassium or any combination of
these.
When the nominal diameter is o.oo3 µ the
molecules adsorbed typically might be H2O and
NH3. by increasing the size to 0.004 µ, larger
molecules such as CO2, SO2, H2O, C2H4, C2H6
and C2H5OH are also adsorbed.
Activated alumina
Activated alumina:
Activated alumina (i.e. aluminum oxide) is an
important adsorbent and is popularly used for
the adsorption of moisture from gases. It can
also withstand high temperatures.
Siliceous Adsorbents (silica gel)
Siliceous adsorbents comprise of silica gels,
fullers and other siliceous earths etc.
these materials are available naturally in a
wide range of adsorbent capacities per unit
weight or volume of a solid and their
capacities are of the same order of magnitude
as that of the most highly activated carbons.
Silica gels are produced commercially by the
reaction of sodium silicate and sulphuric acid.
Adsorbents and uses
Adsorbents Uses
Activated carbon Eliminating odours, purifying
gases, Recovering Solvents
Molecular sieves Controlling and recovering Hg,
SO2, and NO emissions
Alumina Drying Air, Gases and liquids
Bauxite Treating Petroleum Fractions,
Drying Gases and liquids
Magnesia Treating Gasoline and solvents,
Removing metallic impurities
from caustic solution
Silica gel Drying and purifying gases
Strontium Removing iron from caustic
solution
Fuller’s Earth Refining animal oils, tube oils,
vegetable oils, fats and waxes
Adsorption equipment
Adsorbers are the devices that physically
contain the adsorbent solid through which the
effluent gas passes. Some of these adsorption
reactors are,
Fixed bed adsorption unit
 Single bed adsorbers
 Multiple bed adsorbers

Moving bed adsorption unit

 Fluidized adsorbers
 Fixed bed adsorption unit
In fixed bed units,
activated carbon is used
as adsorbent, which is
arranged as beds or trays
in thin layers of 1.5 cm
thickness.
The containers are of
vertical or horizontal
cylindrical shell type.
The resistance to the flow
of air in this unit is less
and hence power
consumption is less.
Fixed bed adsorption unit
These units are suitable for the purification of very
low concentration of pollutants.
The adsorption is rapid and the contaminants
cannot build up on the surface rapidly enough to
reduce the collection efficiency of the thin bed
adsorber layer.
In deep bed adsorber, the layers are deeper than
1.5cm. They occupy the least amount of space and
are simpler to fabricate than thin bed adsorbers.
Deep bed adsorbers will be used, where the
savings on power costs are over ridden by other
determining factors.
Moving Bed Adsorption Unit
Moving bed adsorbers:
In this unit a rotating drum acts as the
adsorption bed, contains activated carbon.
The effluent gas contaminant is moved into
the rotating drum.
The vapour-laden air enters the ports above
the carbon bed, passes through the
cylindrical activated carbon bed, enters the
space inside of this drum and then finaly
leaves through the ports at the ends of the
drum
Moving Bed Adsorption Unit
Fluidized Adsorber:
 It contains a shallow
floating adsorbent bed and
when gas passes upward
through the bed, it expands
and fluidizes the adsorbent.
 The expanding and
fluidizing of the adsorbent
provide intimate contact
between the contaminated
gas and the adsorbent and
prevents channeling
problems often associated
with fixed beds.
Moving Bed Adsorption Unit
Fluidized Adsorber:
Most of the adsorption units are highly efficient
until a break point occurs when the adsorbent
becomes saturated with adsorbate.
At this point, the concentration of pollutants in the
exit gas stream begins to rise rapidly and the
adsorber must be regenerated or renewed.
Depending upon the collected gas-desorption,
adsorbers can be classified as regenerative or non
regenerative.
The non-regenerative process is more costly
because the adsorbent must be disused after
exhaustion and replaced with new material.
Application of Adsorption Equipment
The application of adsorption equipment includes the,
Recovery of iso-propyl alcohol from a citrus-fruit processing
plant
Removal of methyl chloroform from a movie-film processing
plant
Recovery of ethyl alcohol vapours from a whiskey ware house
Removal of contaminants from air prior to use in an
operating room or an electronics control room.
Controlling of organic vapours in
 Dry cleaning
 Degreasing
 Paint spraying
 Tank dipping
 Solvent extracting
 Metal foil coating
Condensation
Each component in a gas mixture, takes up a part of total
volume of the gas, corresponding to its concentration.
Similarly, the partial pressure of the component
corresponds to its share of total pressure.
For each gas component, that is a saturation- partial
pressure value (vapour pressure), depends on the total
pressure and temperature. This principle is used in the
condensation technique of separation between components
in the gas mixture.
When a gas mixture is cooled to a sufficiently low
temperature, the partial pressure of polluting component
will remain at some point, exceed its vapour pressure. The
component will start to condense, until its pressure will be
equal to its vapour pressure at the operating temperature.
Condensation is the process of converting a
gaseous pollutant into liquid. Any gas can be
reduced to a liquid by lowering its temperature
and/or increasing its pressure
Condensers are generally used as pre-treatment
devices. They can be used ahead of adsorbers, and
the incinerators to reduce the total gas volume to
be treated by more expensive control equipment.
There are two types of condensers used for
pollution control
 Contact condenser
 Surface condensor
Contant condenser:
In the contact
condenser, the
gaseous pollutant
comes into contact
with cold liquid.
Surface condenser:
In the surface condenser,
the gaseous pollutant
comes into contact with
the cooled surface , in
which the cooled liquid is
circulated(such as
outside the tube).
Base on the design and
applications , the
efficiency of the
condensers varies from
50% to more than 95%.
Combustion or Incineration units
Combustion is defined as the air pollution control
measure, in which the toxic gases pollutants are
removed from dirty air by means of oxidation .
This method is applicable, when the gaseous pollutants
in the dirty gas are oxidizable to an inert gas.
Incineration is defined as the process of combustion at
high temperature under controlled conditions to convert
the wastes containing harmful matters into inert
materials and gases.
By using incinerators or combustion equipment's, the
pollutants like carbon monoxide(CO) and hydro carbons
(HCs),can be easily burnt, oxidized and removed.
Combustion is the sequence of exothermal-chemical
reactions between the fuels and an oxidant.
Combustion or Incineration units
Combustion functions on the principle that, the
combusted compounds from a high-energy state to low
energy state by releasing some energy.
Combustion or incineration techniques oxidise the
substances rapidly through the combination of oxygen
with a combustible material in the presence of heat.
when combustion is complete, the gas stream is
converted into CO2 and water vapour.
Incineration can be done by anyone of the following
methods.
 Direct combustion (or)flaring (or) direct flame incineration .
 Thermal incineration
 Catalytic flame incineration.
Direct Flame Incineration
Direct flame incineration is
a control technique for
combustible air pollutants.
This is achieved in the
presence of flame and
sufficient oxygen by raising
the temperature of the
gases above the ignition
temperature and then
maintaining the same
temperature, till the
complete combustions
(oxidation reactions) are
complete.
Thermal Incineration
In thermal incinerators,
the combustible waste
gases pass over or
around a burner flame,
into a residence
chamber, where
oxidation of the waste
gases is completed.
Thermal incinerators can
eliminate gaseous
pollutants at efficiencies
of greater than 99%
when operated correctly.
Catalytic Flame Incineration
 Catalytic combustion is suitable,
when the combustible materials in
the waste polluted gas are difficult
to burn flame incineration. This is
generally occurring when the
energy of the polluted gas is lesser
than 3.7 MJ/m3.
 In this method , a mixture of dilute
organic gases and oxygen is exposed
to a catalytic surface at a
temperature, which is high enough
for the oxidation to occur, for a
length sufficient for the oxidation to
go to completion.
 It is better to ensure that the final
product of combustion should be
easily disposable and less toxic than
the original gas pollutants being
removed.
Catalytic Flame Incineration( cont..)
 Catalysts are used to accelerate the rate of oxidation, without
undergoing themselves a chemical change and this reducing the
incineration time or making the incineration feasible even with low
energy polluted gas.
 Catalysts are usually solids and generally platinum or palladium
compounds are used as catalysts.
 Conventionally, such a catalytic compound is placed in a bed similar
to absorption beds.
 Catalytic incineration technique is used to control NOx,SO2,HCs
and CO. The important disadvantages of the catalytic incineration
are,
 Catalysts are very costly materials
 Creating poisoning by sulphur and Lead
 Major industries using catalytic incineration are,
 Varnish Cooking
 Asphalt oxidation
 Printing Press, etc
Process control-control of pollutants
Control of nitrogen oxides
Nitrogen forms eight different oxides and out
of which, the two most common oxides, nitric
oxide(NO) and nitrogen-di-oxide(NO2)are the
important air pollutants to be controlled.
In addition , it is to be concerned with nitrous
oxide (N2O).it may be a significant
contributor to global warming and to the
possible destruction of the ozone layer.
Control of nitrogen oxides
The similarity between the nitrogen oxides and sulphur
oxides are,
Both the oxides react with water and oxygen in the
atmosphere to form nitric and sulphuric
acids,respectively.these two acids are the principal
contributors to acid rain.
Both undergo atmospheric transformations leading or
contributing to the formation of PM10 and PM2.5 in
urban areas.
Both are released into the atmosphere in large quantities.
Both are released to the atmosphere by large combustion
sources,particularly coal combustion sources.
Control of nitrogen oxides
There are also major differences between nitrogen oxides
and sulphur oxides are.
Motor vehicles are the major emitter of nitrogen
oxides,but a very minor source of sulphur oxides.
Sulphur oxides are formed from the sulphur
contaminants in fuels or the unwanted sulphur in
sulphide ores. although some of nitrogen oxides emitted
to the atmosphere are due to nitrogen contaminants in
fuels, most are not.
The formation of nitrogen oxides in flames can be
greatly reduced by manipulating the time, temperature,
and oxygen content of the flames. No such reductions
are possible with sulphur oxides.
Control of nitrogen oxides

It is relatively easy to remove SO2 from

combustion gases by dissolving SO2 in water
and react it with alkali. Collecting nitrogen
oxides is not nearly as easy this way because
NO, the principal nitrogen oxide present in
combustion gas streams has a very low
solubility in water.
Control of oxides of nitrogen
NOx control can be achieved by,
Fuel de-nitrogenation
Combustion modification
Modification of operating conditions
Tail-end control equipment
 Selective catalytic reduction
 Selective non catalytic reduction
 Electron beam radiation
 Staged combustion
Control of oxides of nitrogen (cont..)
The methods of reducing NOx emissions are
classified into three groups. the methods for
each group are,
Before burning
 Fuel de-nitrogenation
During burning
 Staged combustion
 Catalytic combustion

In exhaust gas

 Flue gas treatment
 Catalytic emission control.
Fuel de-nitrogenation
Nitrogen is removed from liquid fuels by mixing the fuels
with hydrogen gas, heating the mixture and using a
catalyst to cause nitrogen in the fuel and gaseous
hydrogen to unite.
This produce ammonia and cleaner fuel. This technology
can reduce the nitrogen contained in both naturally
occurring and synthetic fuels.
Combustion modification
Combustion control uses one of the following
strategies.
Reduce peak temperatures of the flame zone
 Increase the rate of flame cooling
 Decrease the adiabatic flame temperature by dilution
Reduce residence time in the flame zone(change the
shape of the flame zone)
Reduce oxygen concentration in the flame one
 Decreasing the excess air
 Controlled mixing of fuel and air
 Using a fuel rich primary flame zone
Modification of operating conditions
The operating conditions can be modified to achieve
significant reductions in the rate of thermal Nox
production,
The various methods are,
 Low –excess firing
 Off-stoichiometric combustion (staged combustion )
 Flue gas recirculation
 Reduced air preheat
 Reduced firing rates
 Water injection
The flue gas treatment can be used to control
the oxides of nitrogen in the following manner:
NOx emissions can also be removed by
removing them from the exhaust gases that
are released from burners.
In one process, ammonia is added to the flue
gas prior to the gas passing over a catalyst.
He catalyst enables the ammonia to react
chemically with the NOx converting it to
molecular nitrogen and water.
This system removes as high as 90% removal
of nitrogen oxides from the flue gases
In a second process, both NOx and SOx are
removed .the combustion gases are moved
across a bed of copper oxide, which reacts,
with the sulphur oxide to form copper sulfate.
the copper sulfate acts as a catalyst for
reducing NOx to ammonia.
Approximately 90% of the Nox and Sox can
be removed from the flue gases through this
process .

One of the methods of reducing NOx
emissions from oil-fired combustion systems
is to mix water with the oil before it is
sprayed into the burner.
Water decreases the combustion temperature
and can reduce NOx emissions from burning
light weight oils by as much as 15%.
The advantage of using these emulsions is
that they reduce the emissions of particulate
matter. when water is mixed in the oil, each
oil droplet sprayed into the firebox has
several tiny water droplets inside.
The heat existing in the firebox makes these water droplets
flash into steam and explode the oil droplet. Increasing the
surface area of the oil enables it to burn faster and more
completely. A reduction in particulate emissions can be
achieved regardless od whether light or heavy oils are
being burned.
Tail end control equipment
 Tail end control equipment is required when combustion
modification and modification of operating conditions
provides insufficient reductions in NOx not enough to meet
regulations.
Some of the control processes are,
 Selective catalytic reduction
 Selective non catalytic reduction
 Electron beam radiation
 Staged combustion
In this process , the nitrogen oxides in the flue
gases are reduced to nitrogen .during this
process ,only the NOx species are reduced.
NH3 is used as a reducing gas. The catalyst is
a combination of itanium and vanadium oxides.
The reactions are given below,
4NO+4NH3+O2 – 4N2+6H2O
2NO2+4NH3+O2 – 3N2+6H2O
Nitric acid in atmosphere is formed due to
the reaction of high concentration NO2 with
water .It can be removed by,
 controlling motor vehicle and industrial
combustion emissions
Conversion of energy methods etc.
Control of oxides of sulphur(SOx)
 The control of SO2 is completely based on chemical
methods.
 The sulphur present in organic compounds can be
conbverted to various forms by oxidation or reduction
(removal of oxygen or the addition of hydrogen).
 Sulphur gets oxidized to sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulphur
trioxide. In the atmosphere, SO3 reacts with water to form
sulphuric acid, which reacts with ammonia or other cat-
ions to form particles of ammonium sulphate or other
sulphates. These small particles are responsible for urban
particulate and visibility problems.
 Tyical SO2 emissions are about 0.1% SO2 or 1000ppm.
Low concentration of SO2 in gas stream makes it
unprofitable for recovery as H2SO4
Control of oxides of sulphur(SOx)
The most widely used method is scrubbing. The
installation and operation of these air pollution
control device is expensive and require large
capital expenditure
The scrubbing or Flue gas Desulphurization
processes can be classified as Throwaway or
Regenerative processes or wet or dry processes
The major FGD processes are,
 Lime stone scrubbing
 Lime scrubbing
 Dual alkali processes
 Lime spray drying
Control of oxides of sulphur(SOx)
Lime stone wet scrubber:
This is a widely used device for removing SO2. the
incurring exhaust gas after the removal of solid fly
ash particles is passed to a tower. Lime stone
(CaCO3) slurry is sprayed on the incoming exhaust
gas. The SO2 dissolves in the slurry and reacts
with lime stone producing CO2 and solid CaSO3.
SO2+CaCO3+H2O - CaSO3 +H2O+CO2
The limestone scrubbers are still expensive and
troublesome. The large amount of solid waste
produced remains a disposable problem.
Control of oxides of sulphur(SOx)
Lime scrubber:
The process is similar to limestone wet
throwaway process. Lime (CaO) is used
instead of limestone. Lime hydrates to (CaO)
in the hold tank and is sprayed on the exhaust
gases. Ca(OH)2 is more chemically reactive
than limestone. During the process CaSO3 is
produced.
SO2 + CaO+ H2O => CaSO3+H2O
Dual Alkali Scrubber:
This is a wet regenerative system. Two reagents are
used to remove SO2. The scrubbing is done by sodium
sulphite or sodium hydroxide.
Lime spray Drying:
The exhaust gases react with a fine slurry mist of lime.
The heat of the exhaust gases is used to dry the reacted
slurry into calcium sulphite particles.
SO2+CaO => CaSO3
The particles are captured in a particle collection
device along with other particles in the plant. The
removal efficiency of SO2 in a dry scrubbing system is
typicaly 70%.
Control of VOC and Hydrocarbons
Control and treatment of volatile organic
compounds and in organic hazardous air pollutant
emissions are generally accomplished by
 Adsorption,
 Incineration or combustion,
 Condensation and
 Absorption.
The methodology is usually chosen depending
upon the temperature, composition and
volumetric flow rate of the emission stream, space
constraints and allowable installation and
operational costs.
Bio filtration
It is a relatively recent air pollution
control technology in which gases containing
bio degradable VOC or inorganic air toxins are
vented through a biologically active materials.
It has been successfully applied in
Germany and in Netherlands (1990’s) to
control odour, VOC & air toxic emissions from
industrial & public sector sources.
Due to lower operating costs, it can
provide significant economic advantages over
other APC technologies if the gases contain
biodegradable pollutants in low concentrations.
Bio filtration
A bio filter consists of one (or) more beds
of biologically active material. The filtering bed
material consists of peat, hater, bark,
composted sewage sludge, granular carbon &
other suitable materials. The life of the bio
media is 5 years.
The micro organisms, filter medium and
contaminant bio degradability are the 3 main
influencing factors, whereas conc., flow rate of
influent, superfacial velocity, retention time,
elimination capacity, temp., pH, humidity &
acclimation period are the predominant
Bio filtration
One of the main challenges in biofilter
operation is the maintenance of proper
moisture throughout the system. The air is
normally humidified before it enters the bed
with a watering system (spray), humidification
chamber & bio-scrubbers.
This method finds greatest applications in
treating malodorous compounds & water
soluble VOC. Very large air flows may be
treated & although a large area has been
required. A large biofilter may occupy as much
or more land than a football field (one of the
Bio filtration

Components of a bio filter unit

• Filter media – provides surface area for
absorption & adsorption to occur, provides
physical & chemical conditions suitable for the
transfer of contaminants from air to liquid
phase. E.g., - Compost based materials, wood
based materials.
Bio filtration
Components of a bio filter unit
• Support bed – rocks used to permit the air to
move into the bed & to have contact with the
microbes. Perforation permits excess moisture
to drain out of the bed to the plenum (space
where air pressure is higher than inside).
• Collecting fan – used to collect the
contaminated air. As the gas flows through the
bed, the pollutants are absorbed by moisture.
Microbes reduce the pollutant conc., by
consuming pollutants.
• Humidifier – it is fundamental for viable
Bio filtration - Types of a bio filter
On the basis of lay out
Open bed Closed bed
Uncovered and Exposed to all Enclosed with a small exhaust
Weather conditions port for venting of cleaned air
On the basis of shape
Horizontal Vertical
1.With Larger footprints 1. Designed to reduce the
2. Relatively inexpensive footprint required.
3. Easy maintenance 2. Use less surface area
compared to Horizontal
3. Expensive & Not easy to
Maintain
On the basis of support media
Compost bio filter Synthetic bio filter
Soil , Peat, Compost material Ceramic , Plastic
Bio filtration
Factors considering filter material
• ability to retain moisture to sustain bio-film
layer
• large surface area both for contaminant
absorption & microbial growth
• low resistance to air flow
• ability to retain nutrients & supply them to
microbes
Advantages of bio filter
• low capital & operating costs
• designed to fit into any industrial set up
• different media, microbes & operating
conditions can be used to tailor a bio filter
Bio filtration
Disadvantages of bio filter
• sources with severe fluctuating emission
affects overall performance
• high chemical emissions requires large bio
filter units
• unable to treat some org., compounds having
low adsorption rate (chlorinated VOC)
• acclimation period (adapt to new climate,
temp) for the microbial population may take
weeks or even months, especially for VOC
treatment.
THANK YOU