Elimination of volatile organic compounds by biofiltration: a review

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are pollutants that are responsible for the formation of the tropospheric ozone, one of the precursors of smog. VOCs are emitted by various industries including chemical plants, pulp and paper mills, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, electronics and agri-food industries. Some VOCs cause odor pollution while many of them are harmful to environment and human or animal health. For the removal of VOCs, biofiltration, a biological process, has proved to be reliable when properly operated. This process has therefore been widely applied in Europe and North America. The main advantages associated with the use of biofiltration are related to its set-up, maintenance, and operating costs which are usually lower than those related to other VOCs control technologies and because it is less harmful for the environment than conventional processes like incineration. In the present paper, the main parameters (type, moisture, pH, and temperature of filter bed, microbial population, nutrients concentrations, and VOCs' inlet load) to be controlled during the biofiltration are identified and described in detail. The main phenomena involved in biofiltration are also discussed. For improving the efficiency of VOC control biotechnology, new techniques are now proposed that include the use of membranes, biphasic reactors, UV photolysis, and many others.