The objective of this research was to determine the removal of xylene by a composite media biofilter. The study involved two stages. The first stage was to optimize the composition ratio between soil mixed with rain tree leaves and cow manure/plastic waste by varying the proportion at 80:20, 60:40, 40:60 and 20:80 by volume. Crushed sea shell was added to serve as pH buffer and activated sludge was used as source of microbes. The media moisture was controlled at 45-60%. The resulting optimum proportion was used in the second in the second stage to examine the maximum elimination capacity of xylene. Three various empty bed retention time, i.e. 36, 60 and 90 seconds, were tested for xylene inlet concentration ranging from 50 to 2,000 ppm. The first experiment showed that a blend of soil/plastic waste = 60:40 was superior with respect to xylene removal efficiency of 96%, the pressure drop ranging from 3-10 mm. of water the second experiment revealed that the maximum elimination capacity of xylene obtained were70, 142 and 194 gm[superscript -3]h[superscript -1] for empty bed retention time of 36, 60 and 90 seconds, respectively. Moreover, when the xylene removal biofilter operates at higher than the maximum elimination capacity conditions, the elimination capacity decreases.
