Effect of packing material composition on the aerodynamic processes in a wavy lamellar plate-type biofilter

Abstract

Reducing the pressure drop in biofilters is important for the reduction of the energy consumption of these devices. Usually, the pressure drop increases with time due to the biomass growth within the packing material. The aim of this study was to evaluate the aerodynamic processes in a laboratory-scale wavy lamellar (WL) plate-type biofilter equipped with a capillary system for humidifying the packing material. The packing material of a designed biofilter consisted of wavy polymer plates (WPP) vertically arranged next to each other. The pattern of arrangement of the plates allowed sufficiently large spaces, and therefore, the use of such structure had an impact on a decrease in the pressure drop of the biofilter. WPP were coated with three different kinds of materials, namely (I) wood fiber (WF), (II) non-woven caulking material (NWCM) and WF, and (III) linen material (LM) and WF. The results showed that the composition of the packing material influenced pressure drop of the biofilter. The packing material, which consisted of WPP covered with WF, had the lowest pressure drop compared with the other two packing material compositions. In this study, the experimental results were also compared with the results of the performed mathematical modeling of airflow movement.