Abatement of High Concentrated Ammonia Loaded Waste Gases in Compost Biofilters

The performance of lab-scale compostbiofilters for the purification of waste gasescontaining high (>70 mg m^-3) ammoniaconcentrations was studied. When using fresh compostmaterial, no effect of inoculating the compostmaterial with a nitrifying culture was observed sincehigh elimination capacities (up to 350 gNH₃ m^-3 d^-1) were obtained in both theinoculated and the non-inoculated biofilter. Due tothe physico-chemical interaction of NH₃ with thecompost material at the start of the experiment, nomicrobiological start-up period was observed and highremoval efficiencies were obtained from the first dayon. Next to this, no NH₃-toxicity was observedeven at concentrations up to 550 mg NH₃ m^-3.About 50% of the NH₃-removal was found to benitrified, while the other 50% remained in thebiofilter as NH ⁺₄ . As a result of this, noacidification of the carrier material was observed andNH₄NO₃ accumulated in the biofilter. Due toosmotic effects, however, a complete inhibition innitrification and NH₃-removal was obtained at ameasured NH₄NO₃-concentration in the compostmaterial of 6–7 g N kg^-1, corresponding to acumulative NH₃-removal in the biofilter of ±6000 g m^-3. Finally, it was illustrated that theremoval of the odorant dimethyl sulfide (Me₂S) ina Hyphomicrobium MS3-inoculated compostbiofilter is completely inhibited due toNH₃-toxicity at a waste gas concentration of 100 mg NH₃ m^-3. Next to this, theNH ⁺₄ - and NO ^?₃ -concentrations inthe compost material that were shown to inhibit thenitrification, also strongly affected theMe₂S-degrading activity of Hyphomicrobium MS3.