Fruit Packager Utilizes Catalytic Carbon To Reduce Hydrogen Sulfide In Wastewater

Challenge

The Duckwall Pooley Fruit Company is one of the largest fruit packagers in the Hood River Valley in Oregon, packing approximately 1.8 million bushels of pears annually.  To improve their operations and lower their costs, the company implemented new measures to optimize the rinse water usage in the pear packaging line. After packaging of the fruit, collected water is chlorinated for disinfection and treated with coconut shell based activated carbon for residual chlorine removal.

Although reducing the plant‘s water requirement, the water contained residual sediment, pear skin and fruit, which caused bioactivity on the activated carbon media. Sulfur compounds in the water were reduced and formed hydrogen sulfide (H2S), an undesirable “rotten egg“ odor which impacted the packaging plant and facility workers.