Abstracts Below are the abstracts describing the current and pending projects.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 have led to stringent regulatory limits on volatile organic compound emissions from aircraft painting facilities. The purpose of this research project is to develop and optimize a vapor phase bioreactor system specifically for paint spray booth emissions. In this research project, a vapor phase bioreactor containing artificial packing media is being optimized to treat this waste gas stream. Several bioreactor design features are being investigated to control biomass accumulation, increase bioreactor capacity to handle spikes in contaminant concentration and maintain bioreactor activity during shutdown periods. The system is currently being optimized for a surrogate mixture of paint spray booth VOCs under steady feed conditions but will be optimized for actual paint spray vapors under dynamic feed conditions in the next study phase.