A bioactive foamed emulsion reactor for the treatment of benzene-contaminated air stream.

An adapted bioactive foamed emulsion bioreactor for the treatment of benzene vapor has been developed. In this reactor, bed clogging was resolved by bioactive foam as a substitute of packing bed for interfacial contact of liquid to gaseous phase. The pollutant solubility has been increased using biocompatible organic phase in liquid phase and this reactor can be applied for higher inlet benzene concentration. Experimental results showed a benzene elimination capacity (EC) of 220 g m(-3) h(-1) with removal efficiency (RE) of 85% for benzene inlet concentration of 1-1.2 g m(-3) at 15 s gas residence time in bioreactor. Assessment of benzene concentration in liquid phase showed that a significant amount of transferred benzene mass has been biodegraded. By optimizing the operational parameters of bioreactor, continuous operation of bioreactor with high EC and RE was demonstrated. With respect to the results, this reactor has the potential to be applied instead of biofilter and biotrickling filters.