Biodegradiation of Phenolic Paint-Stripping Waste: Laboratory Evaluation of a Fixed Film Batch Reactor.
Abstract
USAF aircraft and ground support equipment require the protection of durable epoxy-polyurethane surface coatings. Maintenance of such painted surfaces using phenol - and chromium-containing strippers has created a waste disposal problem that is aggravated by the centralization of large aircraft depainting operations. The present investigation studied performance of a selectively-seeded, dedicated-function, trickling filter-type biodegradation unit. The specific waste target was the concentrated phenolic waste water produced at the Kelly AFB-ALC depaint facility. Three filter units utilizing a top-down fluid-air flow batch operation were built at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. Experiments were run examining solid support media choice, bed length and volume, ventilation requirements, hydraulic surface loading, phenol concentration and loading, rate kinetics, chromium tolerance, starvation response, and temperature effects. It was theorized that the batch process with its alternating starvation/loading cycles selects for a microbial community better able to cope with occasional wider swings in this cycle. A thin-film reactor conserves the genes of its adapted community more efficiently than other reactor types. The data summarized in this report suggests that a batch fixed film process may have advantages over other biological unit processes for some phenolic waste-streams.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA073996
Entities
People
- Daniel J. Hansen
- Howell D. Cobb Jr.
- John W. Egan
- William E. Olive Jr.
Organizations
- Trinity University