Articles
Biotreatment Of Organic And Inorganic Odors
March 30, 2009
•White Paper: Biotreatment Of Organic And Inorganic Odors
By Rakesh Govind Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cincinnati
Air emissions from manufacturing operations and waste treatment plants often consist of a combination of odors and volatile chemicals. Odors are inorganic or organic compounds, which are present in low concentrations, typically 20 ppmv or less, which have an unpleasant odor. Volatile chemicals are often present at higher concentrations than odors, but may or may not have any odors associated with them. The major problem with emission of volatile chemicals is the detrimental impact on the environment and adverse human health effects. While several U.S. EPA and OSHA regulations govern the emission of hazardous volatile chemicals in the ambient air and in the workplace, odor emissions are often a major nuisance to the plant workers and surrounding communities. In recent years, biological treatment has emerged as a major contender for in-process or end-of-pipe treatment, as compared with other treatment technologies, such as chemical oxidation, adsorption, gas absorption, or thermal oxidation. Major advantages of biological treatment are ambient temperature and pressure operation, no generation of toxic byproducts requiring disposal or further treatment, and favorable economics. Disadvantages associated with biological treatment are upsets due to inactivation of active microbial cultures, and lack of adequate knowledge to operate the process at peak capacity and performance level. In this paper, the application of biotreatment for controlling emissions of odors and volatile organics will be addressed.
Biofiltration will play a major role in the treatment of organic and inorganic emissions from a variety of industrial and waste water treatment processes. Biofiltration, when compared to other available technologies, has significant technical and cost advantages. Compost biofilters are better suited for treatment of odors and low concentration (< 25 ppmv) contaminants. Biotrickling filters have significant advantages over compost biofilters and are capable of handling significantly higher contaminant concentrations ( 20 ppmv – 5,000 ppmv). The major issues in biotrickling filters is the design of the support media and handling of biomass growth. Support media design has a significant impact on biotrickling filter performance. The market for biofilters will increase in the next millennium, as new applications arise in the future.
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