About Biological Systems

Scion Technologies offers a series of proven MEGTEC biological treatment systems for VOC abatement and odour control. Naturally occurring microbes offer an efficient and cost-effective method of abating volatile organic compounds, including solvent contaminants and odorous compounds.

Scion offers two types of MEGTEC biological treatment systems:

• The Bioreactor – suitable for treating high air flows, with low VOC concentrations
• The Bioscrubber – for the treatment higher concentrations of miscible or partially miscible VOCs

The specially selected, naturally occurring microbes used in MEGTEC Biosystems utilize VOCs as a carbon source for cell growth and reproduction. The microbes oxidize the VOCs to carbon dioxide and water, obtaining energy during the process.

MEGTEC offers biological treatment systems which:

• Minimize space requirements
• Provide competitive capital cost with low operational costs when compared to traditional technologies
• Provide a modular approach to system design facilitating the treatment of a wide range of industrial process emission exhausts
• Comply with legislation
• Provide high efficiency
• Preclude air flow optimization which is frequently required for thermal or catalytic oxidation processes to be economic

MEGTEC has installed biological system in the following industries:

• Chemical
• Pharmaceutical
• Printing
• Converting
• Process
• Manufacturing

Bioreactor

The MEGTEC Bioreactor is an ideal abatement system in situations where a high air flow with a relatively low solvent concentration render alternative destruction and recovery technologies uneconomical. The technology can be applied to a wide range of abatement applications from formaldehyde degradation to highly hydrophobic solvents such as Styrene and Toluene. The Bioreactor provides optimum conditions for cell growth and reproduction. The environment within the Bioreactor is controlled by recirculating water from the reactor sump and spraying it over the inert media bed which supports the microbes. Additional nutrients are fed to the microbes at a controlled rate based on the amount of VOCs being handled by the Bioreactor system.

Where there are fluctuating VOC concentrations, an activated carbon filter can be used to adsorb the high-peak concentrations. The filter releases the solvents when the inlet concentration falls, thereby smoothing out concentration and allowing the Bioreactor to receive a more constant VOC load.

The MEGTEC Bioreactor design features which increase the range of applications and effectively minimize the system "footprint" include:

• A highly specialized biomass held on a specially selected fixed-film support
• An ideal mechanism for mass transfer of hydrophobic solvents allowing higher concentrations of VOC to be degraded per unit volume than other types of biological treatment
• Sustained degradation efficiency by the integration of automatic system monitoring and control
• The MEGTEC Bioreactor can be used provide the most effective solvent removal technique for:
• Relatively constant solvent loads (reducing the need for solvent buffering)
• Lower water solubility applications (precluding the use of a wet scrubber)

Bioscrubber

For operations where the VOC loads are high and solvents are soluble or partially soluble in water (such as alcohols, esters, ketones, aldehydes and amines), the Bioscrubber is applied. In these applications, a scrubber scrubs VOCs from the air stream into a water phase. The Bioscrubber system provides reasonable turndown and eliminates problems associated with packed columns such as blockage or build-up of biological growth.

Water containing the VOCs then flows to a trickling filter that contains the microbes. As the water flows down through the filter, the VOCs are oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. The treated water is then collected and recycled back to the scrubber.

MEGTEC Biosystems have low operating costs because they operate at ambient temperatures, requiring only enough energy to drive the VOC-laden air through the system. Most systems are designed to meet specific customer requirements, with layouts matched to the installation site.

MEGTEC Biosystems are extremely resilient. Systems can be shut down for weekends or annual shut downs without affecting the microbe population. This allows operations to be restarted and back to maximum removal efficiencies in a minimal amount of time. Systems are supplied on a delivered or turnkey basis.