The xylene is an important hydrophobic volatile organic compound (VOC) widely used as a solvent in different industries. Compared to the conventional bioreactors, the membrane bioreactor is more efficient for the degradation of hydrophobic VOCs. In this work, the degradation of gaseous xylene in a flat composite membrane bioreactor inoculated with activated sludge under different operating conditions was investigated. The maximum elimination capacities, ECv of 289 g/(m3 h) and ECm of 0.145 g/(m2 h) were obtained at the gas residence time of 20 s and the loading rate of 475 g/(m3 h). Moreover, the membrane bioreactor is stable enough to suffer weak shock loading and short intermittent process shutdown. These results indicate that the membrane biotechnology shows great potentials in practical applications for xylene removal.

中文翻译：

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平板复合膜生物反应器中气态二甲苯的生物降解

二甲苯是一种重要的疏水性挥发性有机化合物 (VOC)，广泛用作不同行业的溶剂。与传统的生物反应器相比，膜生物反应器对疏水性 VOC 的降解效率更高。在这项工作中，研究了在不同操作条件下接种活性污泥的平板复合膜生物反应器中气态二甲苯的降解。在 20 s 的气体停留时间和 475 g/(m3 h) 的加载速率下，获得了最大消除能力，ECv 为 289 g/(m3 h)，ECm 为 0.145 g/(m3 h)。此外，膜生物反应器足够稳定，可以承受微弱的冲击载荷和短暂的间歇过程停机。这些结果表明，膜生物技术在去除二甲苯的实际应用中显示出巨大的潜力。