Effect of the height-to-diameter ratio on the mass transfer and mixing performance of a biotrickling filter

BACKGROUND Biotrickling filters (BTFs) are among the most widely used biological technologies for air pollution control. The pollutant removal rate in BTFs relies to a large extent on its gas–liquid mass transfer performance. Therefore, knowledge of the design parameters affecting the mass transfer and mixing performance of full-scale BTFs is of paramount importance. RESULTS This work showed that the height-to-diameter (H/D) ratio is an important parameter in the design of BTFs devoted to air pollution control. The H/D ratio significantly affected the mass transfer and mixing performance of the BTF with and without additional stirring in the holding tank. It was observed that under the same…