Deterioration of organic packing materials commonly used in air biofiltration: Effect of VOC-packing interactions

• Organic packing media deterioration is not only due to direct microbial attack.
• Interaction of toluene with organic materials caused a release of co-substrates.
• Exposure to toluene increased packing media biodegradability by 17–26%.
• Macadamia nutshells exhibited the highest resistance to VOC attack.

The abiotic deterioration of three conventional organic packing materials used in biofiltration (compost, wood bark and Macadamia nutshells) caused by their interaction with toluene (used as a model volatile organic compound) was here studied. The deterioration of the materials was evaluated in terms of structural damage, release of co-substrates and increase of the packing biodegradability. After 21 days of exposure to toluene, all packing materials released co-substrates able to support microbial growth, which were not released by the control materials not exposed to toluene. Likewise, the exposure to toluene increased the packing material biodegradability by 26% in wood bark, 20% in compost and 17% in Macadamia nutshells. Finally, scanning electron microscopy analysis confirmed the deterioration in the structure of the packing materials evaluated due to the exposure to toluene, Macadamia nutshells being the material with the highest resistance to volatile organic compound attack.

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