Simultaneous treatment of dimethyl disulfide and hydrogen sulfide in an alkaline biotrickling filter.

Foul odors comprise generally a complex mixture of molecules, where reduced sulfur compounds play a key role due to their toxicity and low odor threshold. Previous reports on treating mixtures of sulfur compounds in single biofilters showed that hydrogen sulfide (HS) interferes with the removal and degradation of other sulfur compounds. In this study, hydrogen sulfide (HS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) were fed to an alkaline biotrickling filter (ABTF) at pH 10, to evaluate the simultaneous removal of inorganic and organic sulfur compounds in a single, basic-pH system.

Modeling the effects of biomass accumulation on the performance of a biotrickling filter packed with PUF support for the alkaline biotreatment of dimethyl disulfide vapors in air.

Excess biomass buildup in biotrickling filters leads to low performance. The effect of biomass accumulation in a biotrickling filter (BTF) packed with polyurethane foam (PUF) was assessed in terms of hydrodynamics and void space availability in a system treating dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) vapors with an alkaliphilic consortium. A sample of colonized support from a BTF having been operating for over a year was analyzed, and it was found that the BTF void bed fraction was reduced to almost half of that calculated initially without biomass.