Biological treatment of airstreams contaminated with organic vapors

Increases in regulatory control of discharges of organic vapors require improvement of traditional methods of removal and treatment of organic vapors from airstreams. The traditional methods of removal, various forms of adsorption, only change the phase of the pollutants. Subsequent treatment of the pollutants has proven to be energy intensive and therefore expensive. Biological treatment of organics has proven to be inexpensive but requires that the organics be in dissolved form, in the liquid phase, and at a concentration above a minimum concentration. Adsorption of organics in the gas phase onto activated carbon, which is suspended in water, will remove the pollutants from the gas phase and can increase the aqueous concentration, in the region around each activated carbon particle, above the required minimum for biological degradation. The organic pollutants can then be biodegraded leaving harmless by-products. Design of a reactor to provide for the phase change and the biodegradation of the pollutant requires development of a theoretical model and validation of the model.