Waste Management 25 (2005) 928939 www.elsevier.

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Odour management and treatment technologies: An overview

M. Schlegelmilch *, J. Streese, R. Stegmann
Hamburg University of Technology, Department Institute of Waste Management, Harburger Schlossstrasse 36, D-21079 Hamburg, Germany Accepted 15 July 2005 Available online 31 August 2005

Abstract There is a large variety of options available for the eective treatment of odorous emissions. The most important physical, chemical and biological treatment processes are shortly described and their favourable applications, as well as their limits, are highlighted. But for a sustainable solution of an industrial odour problem, there is more involved than just the installation of a waste gas treatment system. This article focuses on a general and systematic approach towards extensive odour management. First of all, an odour assessment should be worked out where all actual and potential odour emission sources are recorded and characterised. A special focus should be set on fugitive emissions, which may have an enormous impact on the overall odour problem. They need to be captured before they can be supplied to a treatment system. According to the composition and condition of the waste gases, an appropriate treatment system must be selected. For this purpose, test systems have been developed and are presented in this article. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Waste gas is one of the main emission pathways of many industries and production processes. Airborne emissions are highly mobile and, depending on their composition, can cause environmental problems at the local, regional or even global scale. Thus, treatment of gaseous emissions is an important measure to protect both public health and the environment. Consequently, the legal requirements related to air emissions have become stricter in many countries in recent years. Furthermore, air pollution can tarnish a companys reputation and decrease product acceptance. Complaints from the public due to odorous emissions from municipal activities, e.g., composting plants, or waste gases of industrial or agricultural origin are increasing signicantly in many countries. This leads to more emphasis on odour assessment. However, regulations and guidelines to
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 40 42878 2488; fax: +49 40 42878 2375. E-mail address: schlegelmilch@tu-harburg.de (M. Schlegelmilch). 0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2005.07.006
*

avoid odour annoyance presently dier from country to country (Mahin, 2001; Sucker et al., 2001; Frechen, 2000). As odour problems are very complex issues and nding a suitable odour control technique is not less complicated, a general odour management approach should be made. This approach should always start with a thorough odour assessment, where all emission sources are recorded, characterised, and evaluated. Emissions that cannot be avoided need to be captured before being introduced into a treatment system. According to the chemical composition and physical condition, a suitable treatment system should be selected. In order to do so, detailed knowledge is needed about the advantages and disadvantages of the various technologies available for o-gas treatment. Still, additional experimental data may be necessary since required experiences for specic applications might not be available. Such a systematic procedure, followed by a continuous monitoring of the performance of the implemented treatment process, is a major step towards a sustainable solution to the odour problem.

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2. Odour assessment Experiences have revealed that before a useful approach towards a successful odour abatement strategy for a companys emission problem can be made, the situation on-site has to be evaluated very closely. To eectively tackle this problem, a systematic approach in the form of an odour assessment should be carried out (Schlegelmilch et al., 2004). First of all, assessing the companys level of odour release involves a complete detection of all actual and potential odour emission sources. It is important to not only consider obvious sources like air vents and stacks but also sources of fugitive emissions. Especially the latter have often been neglected but may very well account for a high portion of the odour problem. Often the potential benets of an eective waste gas treatment system may be negated by fugitive emissions that have not been taken into account in the odour management plan. Possible sources for fugitive odorous emissions may be open delivery, tipping, and storage areas, open doors and windows, as well as leakages in the piping system. In addition, poorly designed or malfunctioning treatment systems should be considered emission sources. When identifying and recording the emission sources, a companys site plan may be very helpful to mark the discovered sources for future reference. The site should be systematically paced o by a group of people, including at least one member of the local sta who is familiar with the site and the technical processes involved and an expert in the eld of odour assessment and abatement strategies. Together they should record every relevant odour emission source and present a detailed description of the source. The companys representative should provide information about the origin of the several emissions to get a rst idea of the possible composition and condition of the exhaust. A rst evaluation of the sources contribution to the overall companys odour problem may also be given. For the recording of the various emission sources, a systematic and uniform approach should be made. This allows a better comparability of the sources with regard to their evaluation. It should be considered to develop a data sheet that contains all the relevant data to describe and characterise an odour emission source. An example for such a data sheet is given in Fig. 1. In the following, a more detailed description is given according to the relevance of the mentioned parameters. One of the main criteria for the evaluation of an emission source regarding its contribution to the overall odour problem is the odour concentration, with the odour load directly deriving from this parameter by knowing the volumetric ow rate. The higher the odour load the higher the impact on the environment. Furthermore, the description of the odour quality may give crucial hints for a decent evaluation of the odour source

Fig. 1. Odour assessment data sheet for recording the description and characterisation of odour sources and emissions.

with regard to its relevance for the overall odour problem. The amount of organic carbon in the waste gas is an important parameter, as it is a criterion for the suitability of several waste gas treatment methods. While thermal treatment systems might be suggested for nonbiodegradable compounds, biological systems may be the methods of choice for biodegradable substances. The temperature mainly is a limiting factor for biological systems. Usually, the temperature should not exceed 40 C. However, there are biological systems that are able to deal with higher temperatures, like thermophilic bioscrubbers. High gas temperatures can also reduce the eciencies of both adsorption and absorption due to the increasing volatility of the odorous substances. The moisture content also inuences the selection of a treatment system. While biolters need water-saturated air loads for a successful operation, very moist gas streams may have a negative eect on selected adsorption systems. Furthermore, it has to be taken into account that from cooling of water saturated air streams, large quantities of condensate may arise. By analysing the chemical composition of a sample of waste gas, the most relevant odorous substances can be identied. Based on this

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knowledge, together with results from pre-tests, a suitable treatment method can be chosen. Finally, a detailed description of the emissions source, including photographs, is very helpful information when discussing the odour abatement strategy.

cess to choose should be provided by the results of the odour assessment.

4. Selecting appropriate odour treatment technologies Very high process eciencies are required for the treatment of odorous emissions as humans are sensitive to very low concentrations of odorous substances. The applicability of the dierent treatment processes mainly depends on the composition and amount of the waste gas. Additionally, temperature, moisture, and particulate content have to be considered. Furthermore, the specic local situation has to be taken into account. Crucial parameters for the feasibility of a process design are demand and availability of land area and the nancial budget. Nearly any treatment process can be designed large enough to meet the required eciencies. Thus, selection and design of suitable treatment processes must aim at nding an optimum where the required treatment eciency is achieved as cost-eectively as possible, using a technology that is adapted to the specic conditions. Often, a combination of dierent treatment methods is advantageous. Information in Table 1 lists some of the more commonly used odour treatment processes along with corresponding design options. Having this variety of treatment options available, the main task is to know which system is best applicable for a specic odorous emission. This section provides basic information on the advantages and disadvantages of selected waste gas treatment systems, as well as additional potentialities of how to ll the gap between this information and the nal abatement of an odour problem. 4.1. Odour treatment technologies 4.1.1. Adsorption Adsorption is the process whereby the molecules of odorous compounds attach to solid surfaces. Commonly used adsorbents include activated carbon, activated alumina, silica gels and zeolites. The rst three of these are amorphous adsorbents with a non-uniform internal structure. Zeolites, however are crystalline and have,

3. Managing odorous emissions Once all odorous emissions are detected and characterised, they need to be captured before an adequate treatment method can be applied to the waste gas. For most of the emission sources this will be an easy task, as there will mainly be air vents and sockets that have to be dealt with. In these cases the waste gas streams are already captured in pipe systems and can easily be transported to a treatment system. Fugitive emissions are an entirely dierent matter. A lot of eort has to be put into the controlled collection of these emissions. Especially at old factories which grew over several decades, it can be quite a challenge to detect and manage all of these fugitive emissions. Often broken windows need to be xed, sources covered and captured, and ventilation systems have to be installed. When planning the capturing and collection of gaseous emissions it should be taken into account that most waste gas treatment systems run more economically if they are supplied with a high load of organic substances. Furthermore, it is obvious that the higher the volumetric ow rate of the exhaust gas, the larger the dimension of the treatment system, and accordingly the more expensive the facility will be. Consequently, capturing of emissions by source should be practised by means of hoods, by covering those processes which have a high emission potential or by separating them from large process halls to keep the quantities of contaminated air as low as possible. Collected waste gases should be treated according to their chemical composition, their physical condition, organic load, and volumetric ow rate. In some cases it may be more ecient and even more economical to install various small treatment systems each designed for one specic waste gas, instead of one big process that is fed with collected emissions from the entire site. Knowing about the advantages and limits of the several treatment systems, the relevant information on the waste gas streams needed for the decision of which pro-

Table 1 Overview on odour treatment processes Process Adsorption Absorption Biological waste gas treatment Waste gas incineration Non-thermal oxidation processes Options Dierent adsorbents (activated carbon, activated alumina, silica gels, zeolites, etc.) Physical absorption; chemical absorption Bioscrubbers; biotrickling lters; biolters Thermal afterburners; catalytic incinerators; regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO) Ozone, UV, non-thermal plasma

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therefore, an internal structure of regularly spaced cavities with interconnecting pores of denite size (Buonicore, 1992a). Recently, research has focussed on the design of engineered, specic adsorbents (Ko nig and Werner, 2005; Cartellieri et al., 2005). In industrial applications, adsorbers are mostly designed as xed bed reactors, with the gas passing through a stationary bed. Simultaneous adsorption and desorption is required for continuous operation of adsorbers. This may be achieved by parallel operation of several adsorbers or by using an adsorber wheel (Fischer, 2001). Regeneration of the adsorbent is usually conducted by means of hot gas or steam. A disadvantage of this technology is the relatively low heat capacity of the regeneration gases, resulting in large regeneration gas ows, which are re-diluting the desorbate (Cartellieri et al., 2005). Electrothermal regeneration is a variant of thermal desorption where the energy input is decoupled from the ushing gas ow, resulting in better process control and higher desorbate concentrations (Bathen and Schmidt-Traub, 1999). One method of electrothermal regeneration frequently investigated in recent years is microwave desorption. Although this method showed promising results in some applications (Stegmann and Hensel, 2004; Robers et al., 2004), it has to be taken into account that hot spots and electric discharges between the particles may occur. Thus, ammable adsorbents may be subject to spontaneous ignition in the presence of oxygen (Price and Schmidt, 1998). Other possibilities of electrothermal regeneration include inductive desorption, where an electric current in the adsorbent is induced by a magnetic eld (Bathen and Schmidt-Traub, 1999) and adsorption on activated carbon mats, which are regenerated by directly conducting an electric current through the material (Mu ller and Schottler, 2003). In both cases, the active principle is ohmic heating. Obviously, these technologies can only be applied to electrically conducting adsorbents, like activated carbon. In full-scale applications, electrothermal desorption is much less commonly used than thermal regeneration. Adsorption is commonly used as an enrichment step prior to thermal gas treatment (Anguil, 1998). It can also be combined with other technologies, like bioltration. This combination may be especially suitable for companies with varying exhaust air concentrations, e.g., due to discontinuous production, because biolters tend to be less eective under transient conditions. In these cases, the adsorbent can be loaded in times of high raw gas concentrations and desorbed when the inlet concentrations are low, e.g., at night. That way, the biolter can be loaded with a relatively constant concentration (Paul et al., 2001; Herzog and Thien, 1997). High moisture contents, however, often have a negative eect on the adsorption process.

In the process design of the predominating xed-bed adsorber, the diameter of the adsorber and the depth of the adsorbent bed are the two critical dimensions, as they inuence the supercial velocity and the pressure drop of the adsorber. To avoid uidised bed characteristics due to high air velocities and uneconomical pressure losses, for continuous operation a supercial velocity between 0.1 and 0.5 m s1 has been proven to be practicable (VDI 3674, 1998). 4.1.2. Absorption During absorption, o-gas compounds are dissolved in a scrubbing liquid. Mass transfer is mainly controlled by the solubility of the substances and the gasliquid interfacial surface (Buonicore, 1992b). The solubility can be aected by selection of a suitable solvent, as discussed by Freudenthal et al. (2005). Packed columns are used most frequently to provide a large interfacial surface. Other devices which are used include jet and venturi scrubbers, plate columns and spray scrubbers (Fischer, 2001; Heining, 1998; Buonicore, 1992b). Accumulation of the waste gas components in the scrubbing liquid would result in a cease of mass transfer after establishment of equilibrium according to Henrys law. Thus, the scrubbing liquid must be exchanged or regenerated (Fischer, 2004). Regeneration of the scrubbing liquid can be conducted by means of stripping with air or steam. As in adsorption, the aim is to obtain a desorbate ow with considerable higher concentration than the original exhaust air which can be treated more eciently. Aqueous scrubbing liquids can also be biologically regenerated (bioscrubbers, see below). In many applications, chemicals are added to the scrubbing liquid which will react with the dissolved waste gas compounds and thus add to the scrubbing liquid regeneration (chemical scrubbers). In these cases, removal of reaction products must be ensured. The use of oxidants is the most common application in chemical scrubbing. Besides ozone (O3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), mainly sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) is used because it is both relatively inexpensive and easy to handle. However, a drawback of hypochlorite is the tendency to not only oxidise but also chlorinate the compounds. Furthermore, some chlorine gas (Cl2) also is formed. NaOCl will most easily chlorinate amines and similar basic compounds, which therefore have to be removed from the gas by a sulphuric acid scrubber prior to the hypochlorite scrubber. The chlorine evolved can be absorbed in a third scrubber operating with caustic soda. This three-stage system can be very eective from a chemical point of view (Valentin, 1993). However, considerable amounts of chemicals are required, and reaction products must be removed and treated or disposed of.

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For the removal of ammonia, particularly from piggeries, sulphuric acid scrubbers have been successfully applied. The advantage of this process is the formation of an ammonium sulphide solution, which can be sold as a fertiliser. This process often is combined with a subsequent biolter to remove remaining odours (Hahne and Vorlop, 2001; Sattler et al., 2000). Acidic substances, like hydrogen sulphide (H2S) can be treated with caustic scrubbers using diluted sodium or potassium hydroxide. This way, organic sulphur compounds can also be removed (Dammann et al., 2001). However, salts or sludges are generated which may cause considerable costs for disposal (Fischer, 2004). 4.1.3. Biological treatment systems Biological waste gas treatment systems rely on the activity of microorganisms, which are able to degrade organic contaminants from the air stream (Bardtke, 1990). The microorganisms feed on odorous substances and oxidise them, at best to CO2 and H2O or other odourless products. Thus, biological systems sustainably reduce odorous emissions and do not shift the problem to other media like scrubbing liquids or adsorbents, which remain as problematic residues. Furthermore, if at all, few chemical agents have to be added and energy costs are relatively low, as they are operated at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures. Accordingly, investment and operational costs for biological waste gas treatment systems are comparably low (Ergas rdenas-Gonza les, 2004; Devinny et al., 1999). and Ca There are two biological systems commonly used for the treatment of odorous emissions:  Biolters.  Bioscrubbers/biotrickling lters. These systems are described below. 4.1.3.1. Biolters. Biolters can be described as biochemical xed bed reactors where the waste gas is treated while passing a biolter bed. Microorganisms settle on its surface and form a biolm in which the airborne substances are absorbed. An important criterion for biolter media is to provide optimum environments for the microorganisms, thus an essential property is the ability to store water. Additional criteria are a low pressure drop to assure an even air distribution and a large specic surface for the mass transfer and the microorganisms to settle on. Frequently used biolter media are compost, peat, root wood, bark, wood chips (normally used as bulking agent) and dierent kinds of combinations (VDI 3477, 2002). In most of these cases, the biolter material already provides stable mixed cultures of microorganisms, which mostly adapt to the condition and composition

of the waste gas. The adaptation phase may range from several days to several weeks (Streese et al., 2005; VDI 3477, 2002). Inoculation of the biolter with e.g., biosolids or specialised microorganisms especially for inorganic media can be considered to shorten the starting phase (Kennes and Thalasso, 1998). One of the key parameters of bioltration is the moisture content of the biolter material. The optimal range for biologically active organic media is between 40% and 60% (VDI 3477, 2002; Heining, 1998; Kennes and Thalasso, 1998). To avoid drying of the lter media, the waste gas should be saturated with water vapour. Usually the air is humidied using wet scrubbers or even bioscrubbers. However, not only dry air streams can cause drying of the biolter material. If the passing waste gas is heated within the lter due to a high microbial activity, water will evaporate into the gaseous phase, as the ability of air to hold water vapour rises with an increase of its temperature. That is why even if the waste gas initially is saturated with water, the biolter media may still dry out. An additional irrigation system for the lter may be installed to ensure the optimal moisture content. Anyway, adding too much water should be avoided as it results in clogging and consequently in an increasing pressure drop, a limitation of the mass transfer, and possibly in anaerobic zones (Kennes and Thalasso, 1998). Biolters may be designed as open to the atmosphere or enclosed (VDI 3477, 2002). Biolter beds are up to 2 m deep. In open biolters the air passes through the bed in an up-ow direction. A problem with open biolters is the direct exposure of the biolter media to climatic conditions which may inuence its functionality. A hot and dry climate may result in a drying of the lter media. The opposite problems have been reported from places with very humid climate. In this case, heavy rainfalls forced the operator to cover the lter (Accortt et al., 2001). Enclosed biolters are less aected by weather conditions than open lters, and also oer a better moisture distribution, as they can be operated under down-ow conditions. In these cases the water from the saturated air stream moisturises the rst layers of the biolter material while excess water trickles down by gravity to deeper levels. However, typically the waste gas is not saturated with water, resulting in a drying of the media right where the exhaust is distributed. Consequently, additional sprinklers should be installed at the inlet of the waste gas (Dammann and Stegmann, 1999; van Lith et al., 1990). Traditionally, biolters were used to treat o-gases from sewage treatment plants, composting facilities and rendering plants, which mainly contain biological intermediate degradation products (Schlegelmilch et al., 2005; Sabo et al., 1994; Schro der, 1994; Eitner, 1990). In recent years, further applications have been

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opened to this technology including in food and tobacco producing and processing industries (Ottengraf, 1986; Eitner, 1992; Kersting, 1992), as well as the treatment of waste gases containing industrial solvents and other volatile organic compounds (Fell, 2002; Herzog and Thien, 1997; Hu bner, 1997). Problematic substances regarding bioltration are sulphurous and nitrogenous organic or inorganic compounds, as they cause acidication of the biolter media due to their oxidisation products, sulphuric and nitric acid (Hartikainen et al., 1996; Fetzner and Roth, 1995). For these applications, a combination with other treatment processes should be considered. Applicable lter loads usually range between 40 and 150 m3 m3 biolter material per hour (Dammann and Stegmann, 1999; Hahne and Vorlop, 1999; Paul and Nisi, 1996) but also lter loads of up to 500 m3 m3 h1 are recorded (VDI 3477, 2002). 4.1.3.2. Bioscrubbers and biotrickling lters. In bioscrubbers and biotrickling lters, the microorganisms generally are suspended in a scrubbing liquid but may additionally be immobilised on packing material. The most important component of these devices is the absorption column where the mass transfer between gaseous and aqueous phase takes place, and thus the airborne substances are made available to the microorganisms. Usually packing materials are installed to enhance the contact surface of both phases. In most applications the gaseous and the aqueous phases are distributed in counter ow to each other. However, if no packing materials are installed, cross-ow systems often are used. Once the odorous substances are dissolved in the scrubbing liquid, if degradable they are removed by the microorganisms. The degradation process may take place in the liquid, usually water, or in the biolm that grows on the packing materials. These internals not only enhance the surface for the mass transfer but also provide an additional surface for the microorganisms to settle. During the adaptation phase the microorganisms start to grow and form a biolm which has a large eect on the degradation eciency of the scrubber. Attention has to be paid to the fact that clogging of the scrubber might be a problem. To avoid clogging, the packed bed should have large pores and should be cleaned frequently. The scrubbing liquid is subsequently drawn o and continuously cycled. An activation tank may be implemented into this cycle to allow further regeneration time (VDI 3478, 1996). The degree of regeneration can be inuenced by the size of the activation tank and consequently the retention time of the scrubbing liquid. It may be necessary to install an additional aeration system to provide a sucient amount of oxygen (Schippert, 1994; Gust et al., 1979). Furthermore, nutrients may be

added to the scrubbing liquid to provide lacking elements like phosphorous, nitrogen, potassium, etc., for the microorganisms. The supercial air velocity in a bioscrubber should be in the range of 0.52.5 m s1. Packed towers operate at liquid irrigation rates of about 2060 m3 m2 h1 of packing surface. 4.1.3.3. Bioscrubber/biolter combination. This biological system combines the advantages of both technologies. The bioscrubber acts as a humidier and degrades a high portion of the odour load. It also shows a buering eect (Schlegelmilch et al., 2005), which prevents high concentrations of odorous substances from entering the biolter, which otherwise might lead to a rise in temperature in the biolter material due to increasing degradation processes. 4.1.4. Thermal waste gas treatment Thermal treatment can be basically applied to any exhaust air. However, since the concentration of VOCs is often low, the addition of natural gas or a preconcentration, e.g., by adsorption, is usually required. As a general rule, the lower limit for autothermal combustion is a concentration of organic compounds of 1 g m 3. For thermal treatment, catalytic and non-catalytic techniques are applied. Catalytic processes can be operated at lower temperatures, resulting in considerably lower energy demand. On the other hand, the costs for the catalyst itself have to be taken into account. In addition, for non-catalytic processes, energy costs can be signicantly reduced by using advanced systems with heat recovery (recuperative thermal oxidisers, regenerative thermal oxidisers). Thermal waste gas treatment has gained in importance due to more stringent exhaust air requirements in recent years. For example, the German ordinance on mechanicalbiological pre-treatment of waste (30. BImSchV, 2001) sets a limit of 20 mg m3 of organic carbon in the exhaust air, which can hardly be achieved by biolters. Furthermore, thermal waste gas treatment may be considered on sites where a combustion facility is operated anyway, e.g., for steam generation. However, corrosion and deposits on the combustion unit may occur depending on the composition of the waste gas. Drawbacks of thermal waste gas treatment are the high operating costs in the case of natural gas addition and the formation of secondary emissions like nitrous and sulphur oxides. 4.1.5. Non-thermal oxidation technologies Besides thermal oxidation, several cold oxidation techniques for the treatment of odorous exhaust air, like UV treatment or non-thermal plasma, have been investigated in the last few years.

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UV treatment is successfully used for sterilisation of drinking water or treatment of persistent wastewater components. The technology is based on the UV induced formation of highly reactive radicals and ions which can oxidise organic molecules. Repeated eorts were conducted to apply the positive experience from water and wastewater treatment to waste gas treatment. However, signicant eciencies were only measured when high performance UV radiators were used, resulting in a very high energy demand not considered suitable for treatment of odorous waste gas (Fischer, 2001, 2004). The non-thermal plasma technology uses strong alternating electrical currents or microwave radiation to induce highly activated molecules. Like with UV radiation, reactive radicals and ions are subsequently formed and react with odorous compounds. The ionised air can be generated in an additional air ow that is merged with the main waste gas ow, or directly in the main ow. Both non-thermal plasma and UV radiation result in the formation of excess ozone, which has to be removed by a subsequent catalyst (Fischer, 2001). In investigations at several plants using non-thermal plasma technology, Fischer (2004) measured eciencies between 0% and nearly 100%. The results were strongly depending on the composition of the waste gas and process technology. The results of applying a non-thermal ionisation system show that a removal of the identied main odour causers (limonene, a-pinene and dimethyl disulde) in the waste gas of the biological waste treatment is possible under optimal process congurations (Steinberg et al., 2004). At higher concentrations, the required electrical power increases strongly, implying an application of this technology in low concentration range <100 mgC m3. These ndings correspond to results obtained with a microwave reactor, where high eciencies for the treatment of a gas containing 10% ethanol were only obtained at an electrical power corresponding to 14.5 kWh m3 (I et al., 2004). 4.2. Odour treatment test systems Since the relevant information for the design of a suitable treatment system will not be provided for all applications by general descriptions in handbooks or even by detailed literature studies regarding comparable odour problems, individual investigations in order to nd a suitable treatment method should be carried out. Accordingly, a static and a dynamic mobile test system have been developed at the Department of Waste Management at Hamburg University of Technology to help in the selection of promising treatment systems.

The static system consists of a plastic bag as used in olfactometry (Bockreis and Steinberg, 2005) lled with treatment media like adsorbents, scrubbing liquids, biolter material, etc. and applied with a sample of the odour emission (Fig. 2). After a certain storage time, the treatment eciency of the considered medium can be analysed using olfactometry and chemical analysis (Kleeberg et al., 2005). The results from olfactometry give the overall odour removal rate whereas the chemical analyses reveal which odorous substances are best removed by a certain medium. The results of these investigations will not be suitable to predict the eciency of a full-scale plant but can be used to select the most promising treatment option of a variety of tested methods in a certain application. The static test system is very easy to handle and gives important information on the applicability of various treatment methods, e.g., biological systems, but it cannot predict the dynamic performance of continuous processes. Therefore a dynamic test system is developed with various treatment processes being tested in parallel with a continuous distribution of the investigated waste gas (Fig. 3). According to the results from a test system, a promising treatment method might be chosen and applied to a larger scale. A test plant should be set up on-site and prove the eciency of the method considered. These pre-investigations are strongly advised in order to avoid high investments on technologies that in the end turn out to be either inecient and/or uneconomical. Still, a combination of treatment systems may be installed, like those shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. Static odour treatment test system with biolter material as test medium.

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treated air P

935

T1

T2

T3

T4

F1

F2

F3

F4

RP1

RP2

RP3

RP4

raw gas T1-T4: P: RP1-RP4: F1-F4: test units air pump recirculation pumps flowmeters

Fig. 3. Flow diagram of dynamic odour treatment test system.

Fig. 4 shows a combination of a bioscrubber, a biolter, and an adsorption stage. It was set up to treat odorous gas evaporating from the recirculation tanks of a fat renery process. This bench-scale test plant was used to

investigate the treatment eciency of the single devices regarding specic odorous compounds from the waste gas (Fig. 5). Chemical analyses were carried out using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and GC-MS/olfac-

Fig. 4. Flow diagram and photo of bench-scale waste gas treatment test plant.

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Fig. 5. Fate of odorous substances during the treatment of waste gas from recirculation tanks of a fat renery process.

tometry (Kleeberg et al., 2005) and were conrmed by Ranau et al. (2005). Both papers present more detailed information on experimental results and analytical methods. The results provide specic information regarding the treatment method that is best applied to remove a substance or group of substances. While in this phase of the project these test systems are used to gather data on odorous substances and adequate treatment systems, in a later phase these data should be used to design a waste gas treatment system adjusted to a specic odour emission problem. But still, for nal decisions, treatment tests with the selected method should prove the applicability and provide the required experimental data for the dimensioning of a full-scale waste gas treatment plant. 4.3. Odour specic data base To allow best possible access to the available knowledge about the eciency of waste gas treatment systems regarding odour reduction, a data base will be set up by the Department of Waste Management at Hamburg University of Technology. The purpose of this data base is to provide problem and solution oriented information on odorous emissions of diverse industries and facilities. Recorded information will include e.g., chemical compositions of emissions from specic industries, key compounds and odour substance specic values, such as the odour threshold, and also promising treatment technologies for the several substances. Input material for the data base is continuously gathered from scientic publications. Additional data should derive from the analytical results of the investigations with the newly developed test systems. Because of their

mobility, they can easily be applied to various kinds of emissions and valuable information regarding the applicability of various treatment systems to specic odorous substances can be obtained. The data base should be used as a tool, implemented in the odour abatement strategy and give answers to the question of which treatment technology is the best suitable one for a specic odorous emission or substance.

5. Conclusions Odours are a complex mixture of up to several hundred single odorous compounds that vary widely between diverse industries and facilities. Consequently, odour problems require a systematic approach towards a sustainable solution. Thus, a strategic odour management plan has been developed, which is displayed in Fig. 6. First of all, basic information on waste gas treatment systems and general experiences should be gathered from the literature, e.g., odour management handbooks. The following, most important step is to thoroughly assess the local situation. According to the emission sources considered and the composition and condition of collected waste gas streams, an abatement strategy should be developed. Once the odour specic data base is set up, it will provide helpful information for this purpose. Additional required data can be obtained by individual pre-investigations using suitable test systems. Results should provide sucient data for the design and dimensioning of a full-scale treatment process and, additionally, input data for the data base. This continuously growing pool of knowledge about

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Fig. 6. Odour abatement strategy for sustainable odour management.

odour abatement strategies and treatment technologies should be used as a tool to eectively and economically solve odour problems in industry or various other facilities.

References
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