Consideration on Biofiltration as a Technology to Remove Volatile Organic Compounds from Industrial Emissions

VOC emission is a serious concern for those industrial processes falling under the European “VOC Solvent Emissions Directive”, e,g, for those manufacturers using adhesives, sealants, printing inks, paints, varnishes. Various technologies can be applied to reduce emissions of VOCs to the atmosphere. This paper illustrates a comparison between some destructive and non-destructive abatement technologies, both from a technical and economic point of view, and highlights biofiltration as a very promising Best Available Technology for some applications, because of its very low environmental impact, no waste production and attractive benefit-cost ratio.