| Title |
Usage of Ground Tires as Adsorbent for Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted from Wastewater Treatment Plants |
| Abstract |
The objectives of this research were to determine the organic compound sorption capacity of ground tires, to assess the effects of humidity and biomass growth on the surface of ground tires on the VOCs removal efficiency, to evaluate the desorption rate, to estimate the service time at various operational conditions, and to propose potential application methods for removal of VOCs emitted from a wastewater treatment plants. The sorption capacity increased logarithmically with the increase in the octanol-water partition coefficient. The VOC removal efficience by a ground tire layer were more than 95 for nonpolar compounds and more than 80% for polar compounds at the Qa/Qw ratio between 5 and 10. A biomass grown ground tire layer removed approximately 2 to 20% less VOCs in the off-gas than a wetted ground tire layer. The Qa/Qw ratio affected the off-gas VOC removal efficiences by 25 to 40% for polar compounds but slightly for nonpolar compounds. The service times for a 30cm thick ground tire layer with the Qa/Qw ratio of 10 were all less than three weeks for the organic compounds tested and thus, the sorbent utilization rate was low at this ratio. However, when the ratio was decreased to 5, the service times almost doubled. |