Performance Evaluation of a Novel Bio-Trickling Filter for Styrene Waste Gas Treatment

In recent years, styrene waste gas has become a hot issue in the waste gas treatment industry due to its hydrophobicity and easy polymerization. This study is aimed at the problems of long empty bed residence time and low removal capacity of waste gas from styrene degradation by bio-trickling filter (BTF). A novel bio-trickling filter (NBTF) that we designed was used to explore the effects of styrene inlet concentration, empty bed residence time (EBRT), and starvation period on the performance of NBTF in the degradation of styrene waste gas. The experimental results show that the NBTF can be started in 17 days; when the inlet concentration was lower than 1750 mg/m³ and the EBRT was 59.66 s, the removal efficiency (RE) of styrene can reach 100%. When the inlet concentration was 1000 mg/m³ and the EBRT was greater than 39.77 s, styrene waste gas can also be completely degraded. The above proves that NBTF can complete the degradation of styrene waste gas with high concentration under the condition of short EBRT; in the whole operation process, the maximum elimination capability (EC) of styrene was 112.96 g/m³/h, and NBTF shows excellent degradation performance of styrene. When the starvation period was 2 days, 7 days and 15 days, respectively, NBTF can recover high degradation performance within 2 days after restart. The NBTF has good operation performance in 124 days of operation, which proves that the NBTF can effectively degrade styrene waste gas. This provides a reference basis for industrial treatment of styrene waste gas in the future.