An integrated system of biological and catalytic oxidation for the removal of o-xylene from exhaust

Biofiltration is an efficient technology for treatment of gaseous waste. Its disadvantages, however, include large volume of bioreactor and slow adaptation to fluctuating concentrations in waste gas. Catalytic oxidation offers a high destructive efficiency at relatively low operating temperature and small unit. A bench scale system integrated with a biofilter and a catalytic oxidation unit for the treatment of gases containing o-xylene was investigated in this study. The catalytic oxidation unit was packed with Cu/Al2O3 catalyst. The results showed that 90% of o-xylene could be removed in the biofilter at the load below 38.2 g m−3 h−1. High o-xylene concentration in inlet gas resulted in an overload of the biofilter. Using the Cu/Al2O3 catalytic oxidation unit, the concentration of o-xylene could be reduced evidently. The combination of the chemical and microbial processes not only led to a high and stable efficiency of o-xylene conversion, but also improved capacity resisting the shock loads. The Cu/Al2O3 was studied for o-xylene oxidation in temperature range of 90–320 °C. The o-xylene conversion was improved correspondingly with the increasing of oxidation temperature. The reaction mechanism of o-xylene oxidation on Cu/Al2O3 was also investigated using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS).