The Removing of Odor Emissions at Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

Odors occurring from wastewater treatment plants have continued to grow in significance over recent years. Odor missions are a major problem for many plants in the summer. Due to the increase in biological activity, more oxygen is required. In the United States, odors are regulated by states and by local governments but in the Turkey, there are not federal regulations for odors. Unpleasant odors can be released either directly from the water itself or indirectly (sludge). In addition, these odors are caused by biological fermentation process. The increasing number of complaints about odors has caused to development and evaluation of odor abatement methods. The first step in this study has been identified all the potential odor sources in a waste water treatment plant. After, various odor control methods are discussed including to adsorption, wet scrubbing or gas washing oxidization, electrochemical method and biological methods. Biological method has become a popular choice for removing odorous air streams.  Because it is a “green” technology that uses no chemicals and creates no issues of potentially hazardous media disposal. In many studies were determined high removal rates for gases causing odors using biological method. In this study, this method has been further proposed for the removal of odors occurring from wastewater treatment plants.