Carbon Dioxide Production at Different Matric Potentials in Biofiltration

Academic Paper from the year 2010 in the subject Environmental Sciences, , language: English, abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate PCO2 at different matric potentials/water contents as a way of verifying biofiltration performance. Production of carbon dioxide (PCO2) is often used to measure the extent of biodegradation in biofiltration. PCO2 is a useful measure of performance where a high value of carbon recovery confirms effective biodegradation. A biofilter reactor with water content control through changes in matric potential was used in this study using soil as the filter bed medium. The value of this work is in the study of the biofiltration performance in high matric potential/water content which might not have been possible in previous studies due to the difficulty or even unavailability of rigorous control of matric potential/water content in the experimental set-up. Results of this study imply CO2 production is not a good measure of the extent of biodegradation during wetting (an increase of matric potential) of the filter bed medium and thus, caution in its use as an indicator of the degree of mineralization or biodegradation is to be observed.