Removing ammonia gaseous emission by using biofilter at pilot scale. Case study : PTPN VIII, Cikumpay factory, Purwakarta, West Java

Abstract

Ammonia gaseous has a great potential to be a pollutant in rubber processing industries. The largest source of pollutant is at condensed latex processing. Therefore, biofilter was applied to remove emission of ammonia gaseous from the process. The objectives of this research were (1) to determine the level of physical and chemical absorption to ammonia sourness in forest soil based packing-bed material mixed with compost and carbonized rice husk, and (2) to determine the performance of biofilter to remove ammonia gaseous at pilot scale. Packing bed materials used were forest soil, bokashi compost and carbonized rice husk. The treatment of K111 was packed with forest soil, bokashi compost and carbonized rice husk with composised by 1:1:1. K112 was 1:1:2, K121 was 1:2:1, and K122 was 1:2:2. Physical and chemical characteristics of packing-bed materials within 5 parameters were obtained at ranked level of K112>K122>K111>K121. Carbonized rice husk influenced on physical - chemical characteristics of packing-bed materials, such as density, total porosity, water filled pore space and maximum capacity of loading, except air filled pore space. Those compositions were applied as packing bed materials to biofilters. Composition treatment of K111, K112, K121, K122 were applied to packing bed materials of B111, B112, B121 and B122. Biofilter were applied on pilot scale with 250 liters volume. For 55 days operation, ammonia pollutant concentrations were fluctuated from 0.18 to 68.66 ppm. Parameters inlet and outlet ammonia concentration, physical and chemical characteristics, population of ammonia oxidation bacteria and biofiltration process were monitored. Maximum removal capacities of B111, B112, B121 and B122 biofilters were 0.97, 1.46, 1.03 and 1.62 g-N/kg dry media. The result of biofiltration performance for 11 parameters showed that B112>B122>B121>B111. The best biofilter was determined by its ability in removing pollutant and the cost of required packing-bed. The price of packing bed materials from the lower prices were B111<B112<B122<B121. The cheapest price of packing bed material was B111, but it wasn’t a good performance of biofiltration. Therefore, B112 which was filled by forest soil, bokashi compost and carbonized rice husk with composition 1:1:2 was the best biofilter performance among them.