ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, research on the use of an organic liquid phase for the treatment of polluted air has significantly increased. The objective of the present study was to study the removal of α-pinene from a waste air stream in a continuous stirred tank bioreactor (CSTB), using a single-liquid aqueous phase or a combination of an aqueous-organic liquid phase. Continuous experiments were carried out at different inlet α-pinene concentrations, ranging between 0.28 g m−3-25.1 g m−3 and at three different flow rates corresponding to empty bed residence times (EBRTs) of 60 s, 36 s and 26 s, respectively. The results confirm that the reactor’s performance improved when adding the organic phase since the one-liquid-phase CSTB did not allow reaching maximum elimination capacities as high as the two-liquid-phase bioreactor.
