Biofiltration for the Removal of Methyl Isobutyl Ketone (MIBK)

The biological treatment processes found wide applications in wastewater, air & solid waste pollution control. The need for alternate cost effective treatment technologies led to similar biological treatment processes for waste gas streams. One such treatment technology is biofiltration. Biofiltration technology utilizes the microorganisms to biologically degrade Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and odor contained in waste air streams. In the present study, the culture was developed for the removal of methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), which causes adverse effects on health. The microbial culture obtained from Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant, BITS Pilani is acclimatized with MIBK as the carbon source in a mineral salt medium (MSM). The biodegradation of MIBK is studied for a concentration 400 mg/l. The optical density (OD) of microbial culture is obtained. The maximum absorbance value of 0.369 is achieved at 540 nm using U.V. spectrophotometer. The maximum biomass concentration is found to be 257 mg/l.