Thermophilic waste air treatment of n-alkane mixtures in a two-phase bubble column reactor. Thermophilic waste air treatment of n-alkane mixtures in a two-phase bubble column reactor

Hot waste air is characterized by its propensity to cause overheating of biofiltration systems from fully suitable mesophilic (20–40 °C) to less suitable thermophilic ( > 40 °C) temperatures. This effect is caused not only by air’s high temperature; it is enhanced by its typically high moisture content (releasing heat upon condensation) and the additional heat produced as a result of substrate biodegradation, being particularly significant when high pollutant loads are treated with high efficiency. Typical producers of hot waste air with high humidity are meat rendering, plant/animal waste composting and biomass/foodstuff drying facilities. Pollutant composition may vary significantly depending on the source.In this work, we investigated the removal of a representative n-alkane mixture in a thermophilic two-phase bubble column reactor, thus using the set-up that, to the best of our knowledge, has not been considered yet in any published work