Posted by Marvin Garellek on Tue, May 01, 2012 @ 12:40 PM
IFAT ENTSORGA is taking place May 7-12 in Munich, Germany at the Munich Trade Fair Centre. IFAT is the world’s premier trade show for innovations and services in water, sewage, waste and raw materials management. Odor in wastewater treatment plants is one of the many topics that will be covered and where Odotech will be displaying its odor monitoring and tacking solution – OdoWatch.
Visit Booth A4 – 304, where Odotech will be located. There will be a working electronic nose on display as well as a real-time web based display of waste water treatment plant’s odor monitoring data. The solution connects to a weather station to display an odor plume, so the operator can “see” the odor and it is linked to alert points. Odotech General Manager for Europe – Stuart Lee, International Sales Manager – Marvin Garellek and CEO – Thierry Page will be there to answer questions about OdoWatch, and why municipalities rely on OdoWatch every day for proactive odor management.
See. Track. Control Odor. Booth A4 – 304. www.odotech.com
Posted by Thierry Page on Wed, Apr 25, 2012 @ 10:08 PM
The first permanent US installation of a unique technology that can actually “smell” an odor problem before it occurs has been on line in Tucson, Arizona, since 2009.
The Roger Road Wastewater Reclamation Facility (RRWRF) –TucsonAZ-is an older 41-MGD secondary wastewater treatment facility. Last upgraded and expanded in 1985, the Roger Road WRF was well known for having odor emission problems. Pima County Regional Wastewater reclamation Department completed in 2007 over 7-million dollars worth of odor control improvements at the facility. The facility is located along the banks of the Santa CruzRiverwash, at the base of theTucson Mountainsand adjacent to the I-10 Freeway.
This plant has odor emission sources:
As mentionned by Mr. Dennis Froehlich MS PE, System Wide Odor Control, Engineering Manager,Pima County, during his last presentation at the WEF 2012 Odors & Air Pollutants conference (The Relative Benefits of Dynamic vs Steady-State Continuous Odor Emissions Dispersion Monitoring for Multiple Sources) ''All of these sources have in common one characteristic: significant intermittent (read: dynamic) emissions driven by diurnal fluctuations in the plant processes and local meteorological conditions. So first they have to be identified and then quantified before they can be constructively addressed with a control plan. This meant continuous emissions monitoring.''
In January 2009, the OdoWatch Odor Continuous Monitoring System was installed for source emissions and controls monitoring to provide operators a consistent means of odor event awareness, process issue identification, and receptor impact estimation.
This system continuous emission monitoring system, the Odowatch System, employs a network of electronic noses monitoring odor and a local 10-meter tower with a meteorological station transmitting continuous emissions and met data via radio to a signal transceiver and router sending the data to a central modeling server. This server uses the data to update a locally calibrated Aermod dispersion model and serve the data in realtime to a windowing webpage presenting all of the data, plume map, alerts, and configuration data in four windows. This system also provides user configurable sampling locations where odor data at a given location are estimated from them model and saved.
OdoWatch®, operational at the Roger Road Wastewater Reclamation Facility, where six e-noses (electronic noses) calibrated to smell odors like the human nose are installed at the facility. The unit performs real-time air dispersion modelling to generate a colour-coded plume indicating the level of odour on a map of the site.
The odor monitoring system is capable monitoring facility’s compliance performance in terms of odor concentrations for nuisance threshold at fenceline, assumed as 7 D/T.
The odor is quantified by the system, and if the level begins to approach the threshold that can be perceived as a nuisance by a human nose, an alert notifies operators that actions must be taken to mitigate the situation. OdoWatch® can also be used to determine which source at a facility is causing the alert.
Mr. Froehlich reported that ''...this system is clearly state of the art... As a result of the monitoring, between 2009 and 2011, the low-pressure digester gas system was rebuilt, a flare shroud was designed and installed to shield the laminar flame from winds, and a chemical feed system was improved for chemical sulfide control in the primary clarifiers.''
Posted by Thierry Page on Fri, Apr 13, 2012 @ 07:50 AM
Odors and Air Pollutants 2012
This year’s Odors and Air Pollutants Conference will bring together environmental professionals from the technical and regulated communities to discuss state-of-the-art techniques for the assessment and control of odors and air pollutants while promoting the use and acceptance of effective innovative technologies. The conference will cater to the following technical session topics:
| Methods of Sampling, Measuring, and Estimating Emissions |
Odor and emission Control Systems |
| Odor Control Planning and Monitoring |
Biological Odor Control |
| Fate and Odor Modeling |
Innovative Technologies |
| Collection System Odors and Corrosion |
Design of Odor Control Systems |
| Emission from Biosolids |
Collection Systems Tunnel Ventilation |
Three presentations related to the use of OdoWatch - unique electronic nose odor monitoring technology – will be presented over the duration of this odor specialty conference.
The Relative Benefits of Dynamic vs Steady-State Continuous Odor Emissions Dispersion Monitoring for Multiple Sources, D. Froehlich , Pima County, AZ ; C. Mendes, Odotech
02E 11:30am Session 2: Planning for a Better Odor Tomorrow Monday, April 16 Room: 104 8:35am - 12:00pm
Using the Monitoring of Odors from a Biosolids Composting Site to Optimize the Process and Reduce the Costs D. Martin, T. Jean, Sede Environnement ; P. Micone, Odotech
07C 2:45pm Session 7: Biosolids Odors and Control: A Broad Perspective Tuesday, April 17 Room: 1:35pm - 5:00pm
Odor Control Using Chemical Dosing, Coupled with Odor Monitoring Electronic Noses on an Aeration Basin at a WWTP M. Feltner, A. Kennedy, J. Layne, Hampton Roads Sanitation District ; P. Neofotistos, US Peroxide ; T. Pagé, Odotech ; S. Paterson, Kruger
10D 11:00am Session 10: Innovative Approaches to Odor/Emissions Control and Estimating Wednesday, April 18 Room: 104 8:35am - 12:00pm
Come visit us at Booth: 114
Odotech will feature its patented technologies to see, track, monitor & manage odors 24/7 including eNoses and H2S detectors. Alerting operators during odor episodes give way to; proactive management; reduce complaints; chemical costs.
The conference will be held at the Kentucky International Convention Center
Louisville, Kentucky
Conference: April 15 –18, 2012
Exhibition: April 16–17, 2012
Cooperating Organizations:
Conference Brochure (PDF)
Posted by Veronique Cadieux on Mon, Oct 31, 2011 @ 09:42 AM
ODOR IMPACT STUDIES
Applications:
- Verification of facility compliance with current regulations
- Estimation of level of abatement required to eliminate odor problem
- Knowledge required to identify and choose the best reduction approach possible
Modeling atmospheric dispersion of odors allows us to forecast impacts and olfactory nuisance factors associated with the odor sources under study.
This impact is quantified using atmospheric dispersion models such as AERMOD, CALPUFF, and TROPOS; the choice of model depends on a variety of factors (type of source under study, site topography, required level of result precision, or type of atmospheric contaminant under study).
The classic atmospheric dispersion models for contaminants do not allow sufficient simulation of atmospheric dispersion of odor. For this reason, Odotech performs simulations of atmospheric dispersion of odors using mathematical models specific to odors.
Our odor impact studies are designed and carried out according to a scientific method similar to that of impact studies conducted to study air quality. Using techniques and tools specific to odor, the odor impact study provides the information needed to assess and examine the impact of a project with respect to odor emissions. Its purpose is to help satisfy current regulatory requirements.
Posted by Veronique Cadieux on Fri, Oct 21, 2011 @ 10:06 AM
You would like to respond objectively to odor concerns?
In our last blog, we have shown you how to respond objectively to odor concerns using audits, odor diagnosis, impact study and odor observer committee.
Odor issues are never the same from one industry to the next, but depend upon sectoral functions and varying priorities there is always a way to monitor odor emissions.
OdoScan let you monitor the impact of odor emissions of your industrial site or facility in real time! OdoScan is easy to implement, reliable, incorporating the EPA Aermod dispersion model, it is a site operator’s dream come true.
If you have ever had an odor assessment done, you know the budget it represents. And how many weeks or months it can take for you to get the results. OdoScan gives you the equivalent results in 4 or 5 minutes. And more accurately, too, because OdoScan has its own weather station, as opposed to an assessment working with 5-year area weather averages. Operating 24/7, OdoScan delivers the visuals and data of at least 288 odor assessments each day!
Since odor issues are never the same from an industry to another, you might be in need of a continuous odor monitoring system using eNoses.
OdoWatch, offers 24/7 odor measurement with eNoses, realtime odor plume dispersion modeling & automatic odor alerts. OdoWatch allows you to:
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Right-size odor abatement equipment
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Set odor management priorities
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Reduce odor neutralizer volume
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Save on investigations and government reporting
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Facilitate community relations
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Ensure site Certificate of Approval & Permit compliance
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Reduce documentation cost
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Eliminate current onsite sampling & measurement campaigns
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Prove good corporate citizenship
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Shield yourself against false claims & accusations
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Optimize CAPEX
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Save on OPEX – time, energy & chemicals
Posted by Thierry Page on Sat, Jul 23, 2011 @ 05:06 PM
SIVOS has equipped the 60 Bornes WWTP in Vendée (French Atlantic coast) with an OdoWatch system to measure and model the dispersion of odors. The idea behind it is to lower the complaints from neighboring citizens and to have more targeted interventions.
After repeated complaints from tourists bothered by the smell, they didn't want to hear of it anymore! Yet, elected officials representing SIVOS (inter-municipal body formed to construct and run the 60 Bornes plant) and managers at Saur (the company now managing the 60 Bornes purification plant located in the districts of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez and Saint-Jean-de-Monts in Vendée) still didn’t know how to fight the odor pollution, a common problem with many industries (waste treatment centers, rendering plants, chemical plants, digestion plant, distilleries, etc.). The 60 Bornes plant processes wastewater from 17,000 inhabitants during winter, but has to handle wastewater from over 100,000 people during summer.
And, despite several investments made to minimize odors, its technical managers could not resolve the problem. SIVOS decided to set up a system to diagnose the spread of odors. Between 2004 and 2007, many projects to eliminate odors were tried. These projects ranged from deodorization by UV photocatalysis applied to primaries and sludge odor emissions, fat and drainage effluent treatments, and even an odor absorbing caulking ... they tried everything. To investigate further, they had to know where the smell came from.
SIVOS then decided to call Odotech, specializing in odor measurement and analysis technologies. They performed a diagnosis of the different sources. Sixteen were identified within the treatment plant, but also outside, within a radius of three kilometers.
In June 2008, the WWTP was finally equipped with Odotech's Odoscan system. Stage One: various odor samplings are carried out onsite the plant and around the site in the sewer system. The samples were then processed at the Odotech Lab by dynamic dilution olfactometry: they are diluted with odorless air and the resulting dilutions are then presented to a panel using sniffing ports.
The panel members indicate whether or not they detect an odor. The odor concentration values for each sources are then incorporated into the odor dispersion modeling software and merged in real-time with the weather data (wind direction, temperature, brightness, etc.) provided by a weather tower installed on site.
INVESTMENTS TO BE MADE WERE OPTIMIZED
Finally, SIVOS now has a real-time odor plume 24/7 (odor units per m3 of air) and can track continuously the dispersion of odors. The software uses AERMOD, a US-EPA approved model.
According to Jean-Michel Martin - Plant Manager, “This allows us to have an idea of how it spreads, where it goes, its intensity, even when the nose does not detect anything.” Operators are then able to make any necessary decisions: improve the capture of odors, decide the best time to remove the waste... “The technology allows us to better target the investments to be made”. One year after the implementation of the system, Saur is quite satisfied with it: only two complaints were recorded last year.
Following its proactive approach, SIVOS has since installed electronic noses on the most fluctuating sources, this time to set up a continuous measurement.
Posted by Philippe Micone on Tue, Apr 05, 2011 @ 12:43 PM
Odor nuisances generated by industrial or municipal activities on coastlines have been regularly identified by vacationers as bothersome over the past few years. These nuisances create a new set of problems between tourists, owners and managers of tourist sites, elected community officials, and local industry.
St-Jean-de-Monts, on the French Vendéan coast
Waste treatment activities in these communities are particularly affected by such problems. During the summer season, the quantity of waste to be treated can often amount to more than 10 times the usual off-season load. This overload causes an increase in odor emissions from treatment sites, and a heightened risk of occurrence of odor nuisances.
The installation of odor control equipment on problematic sources is usually the ideal solution. However, to ensure that the investment in such technologies has a real impact on nuisance reduction, it should ideally be accompanied from the outset by an assessment of the odor sources that might generate nuisances, within or outside an industrial site, as well as by monitoring of the improvements achieved. Indeed, while some sources are often perceived as the main culprits in generating odor nuisances, and treated as such, many odor sources with a significant environmental impact are overlooked, so the odor problem persists.
The towns of St-Hilaire-de-Riez and St-Jean-de-Monts, on the French Vendéan coast, are a major summer vacation resort area.
St-Hilaire-de-Riez, on the French Vendéan coast
Together, the two towns host more than 100,000 visitors per week during the summer season, in addition to their usual 15,000 residents.
Historically, one of the main possible source of nuisance identified by elected officials, residents and tourists was the waste water treatment plant (WWTP). The site of the Sivos des 60 bornes WWTP is in the town of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, in the Vendée department.
This plant treats all the waste water of the town of Saint-Jean-de-Monts and one-third of the waste water of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez. The WWTP contains several potential emission sources. The purification process uses a biological treatment of waste water, which includes the usual stages: intake, aeration, and settling. The site presently includes the following installations:
- A waste water intake building (contains a grit chamber and skimmer)
- A buffer pond
- An aeration pool, adjustable according to the charge to be treated.
- Two clarifiers for settling.
- A sludge collection and treatment building.
Gaseous effluent deodorization systems have been installed on these components. The buffer pond, for instance, is deodorized by a photochemical system. The skimmer has also been equipped with a photochemical unit designed to reduce odor concentrations. Finally, the two sludge intake and treatment buildings employ chemical (acid-base) scrubbers designed to purify the building air prior to atmospheric release.
Six pumping stations were also identified in areas near residential or vacation resort areas as potential source of nuisance odor.
Thus, a total of 14 odor emission sources were identified as potential generators of odor nuisances in the environment. The following figure shows these sources.
To better manage the nuisance odors during the peak touristic season, a real-time odor impact monitoring system was installed at the wastewater treatment plant and on the sewer collecting system. The users’ objective was to minimize odor nuisances generated by pumping stations of the waste-water system and by various components of the WWTP. The system (called OdoScan®) enabled the user to identify the main source of odor emissions, in this case the outlet of the deodorization process of the pre-treatment building of the WWTP.
Odor monitoring system
The OdoScan® odor management technology developed by Odotech for continuous odor monitoring was chosen for the site.
The system allows operators to monitor the principal odor source(s) of their facilities. The system comprises a computer, software for real-time odor dispersion modeling, and a meteorological station.
Samples are taken from the odor sources on the site and analysed by a dynamic dilution olfactometer in accordance with European standard EN 13725. The software parameters are programmed to model the atmospheric odor dispersion in real time and to display the resulting odor plume in odor units per cubic meter of air (o.u./m3).
In order to calculate the odor plume, OdoScan®'s atmospheric dispersion model combines real-time data from the meteorological tower with the odor concentration values already measured, and displays the odor plume superimposed on the map of the site. This allows the operator to instantly visualize the impact of the odor, 24/7. The AERMOD dispersion model, a world reference for atmospheric dispersion, is used. The following figure illustrates the concept.
The dispersion model incorporates the characteristics of emission sources and receptor points or surfaces, as well as the real-time meteorological data in order to calculate the odor concentration in ambient air at several user-defined locations.
The system showed interesting results. For example, the modeling of odors is largely dependent on meteorological parameters. The following figure shows the degree to which different meteorological parameters can have a direct impact on the dispersion of odor, and therefore on its perception by those concerned.
Odor plumes in day conditions
Odor plumes in night conditions
The wind direction is comparable but the extent of the plume is completely different for the two scenarios. Note that in the left-hand diagram, the odor plumes are very narrow. The complaint risk is much lower than for the right-hand diagram, where the odor plumes are very wide. As a result, a long stretch of the beach is possibly subject to odors.
The usefulness of this type of equipment lies in enabling the start-up of specific odor control measures when problems arise (chemicals in the sewer system, boosting the scrubber treatment, increasing fresh airflow in buildings, etc.).
The on-demand reduction of odors allows the operator to avoid the costs of continuous odor treatment while ensuring that the quality of life of residents near the sources remains unaffected.
Summary - conclusion
The odour monitoring system provides for three types of analyses:
- The ranking of the odour sources responsible for nuisances
- Real-time assessment of where nuisances are coming from
- Assessment of the degree of nuisance generated over time
This triple analysis allows industrial site operators to better understand the nature and the causes of odour nuisances for which they are responsible in the vicinity and to implement proper short and long term solutions.
As a result of the monitoring, it was decided to implement odour control solutions at the des Sauges and des Demoiselles pumping stations, and to optimise the odour control system already in place at the pretreatment facility.
These improvements resulted in a significant reduction in odour nuisances. In addition, the daily use of the OdoScan system makes it possible to minimise the number of complaints received by the Town Halls and the WWTP operator.
Since this project, The SIVOS has now upgraded their odor monitoring system to OdoWatch including a network of electronic noses. The e-Noses measure the odor emissions of the more fluctuating sources for an increased accuracy of their real time odor impact assessment.