Fungal biofiltration of α‐pinene: Effects of temperature, relative humidity, and transient loads

Over the past decade much effort has been made to develop new carrier materials, more performant biocatalysts, and new types of bioreactors for waste gas treatment. In biofilters fungal biocatalysts are more resistant to acid and dry conditions and take up hydrophobic compounds from the gas phase more easily than wet bacterial biofilms. In the present study, a biofilter packed with a mixture of perlite and Pall rings and fed α‐pinene‐polluted air was inoculated with a new fungal isolate identified as Ophiostoma species. α‐Pinene is a volatile pollutant typically found in waste gases from wood‐related industries. The temperature of waste gas streams from pulp and paper industries containing α‐pinene is usually higher than ambient temperature. Studies were undertaken here on the effect on performance of temperature changes in the range of 15–40°C. The effect of temperature on biodegradation kinetics in continuous reactors was elucidated through equations derived from the Arrhenius formula. Moreover, the effects of the relative humidity (RH) of the inlet gas phase, transient loads (shock or starvation), and the nature of the nitrogen source on α‐pinene removal were also studied in this research. The results suggest that the fungal biofilter appears to be an effective treatment process for the removal of α‐pinene. The optimal conditions are: temperature around 30°C, RH of the inlet waste gas stream around 85%, and nitrate as nitrogen source. The fungal biofilter also showed a good potential to withstand shock loads and recovered rapidly its full performance after a 3–7 days starvation period. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;96: 433–443. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.