Kinetics of Ethyl Benzene Degradation in Biofilter using Isolated Bacteria from Petrochemical Wastewater Treatment Plant

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the kinetics of ethyl benzene degradation in the biofilter packed with the isolated bacteria from a petrochemical wastewater treatment plant. The inlet synthetic contaminated air containing 50 ppm ethyl benzene gas was introduced up flow in a 21.2 lite reactor with the flow rate of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 L/min. The bacterias were fixed on plastic medias (polyethylene) 40 mm × 40 mm and packed in the reactor with about 30 cm height Both inlet and outlet ethyl benzene concentrations were measured using gas chromatography. The results were fit with the order of reaction equations. The relation between the concentrations and empty bed resident times (EBRT) show that the biofilter kinetics was Zero-Order Reaction Limited Model and The Kinetic constant (k₀) was 0.0157 g.m^-3min^-1. The kinetic of the biodegradation of the biofilter system may be described by an equation: C-C₀ = (0.0157×t).