Biological regeneration of liquid sorbents after industrial purification of outlet gases

摘要

Biological regeneration of water and organic sorbents used in the absorption of hydrophilic and hydrophobic pollutants, respectively, was studied. In both cases biodegradation takes place in a membrane bioreactor. In the case of organic sorbents regeneration of the biodegradation process is integrated with the extraction of a given pollutant to water phase. In experiments carried out in this work, the proposed systems were tested using a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens. For hydrophilic compounds experiments were performed using alcohols (1-butanol and 2-propanol) as model substrates. Applying the mathematical model of a membrane bioreactor elaborated previously, the values of pollutant concentration were determined and positively verified in the experiments. This system of water sorbent regeneration is fully satisfying. The process of biodegradation integrated with extraction was analysed on the basis of model compounds such as benzene and toluene. The study confirmed a possibility of organic sorbent (silicone oil) regeneration. However, due to a very high partition coefficient of benzene or toluene between the organic and aqueous phases, the process could be considered only for the case of their high concentrations in the gas directed to absorption.