Removing hydrogen sulfide from wastewater treatment facilities` air process streams with a biotrickling filter
- County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Carson, CA (United States)
Control of hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S) and odor emissions has been a major consideration for many wastewater treatment plants. Many different methods have been and are currently being used for H{sub 2}S and odor control. Most of the current methods involve absorption of H{sub 2}S and odors into a liquid solution or adsorption onto a solid matrix. These methods are either expensive or if not operated correctly can be inefficient. The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts have developed a biological method to remove odors and H{sub 2}S from different off-gas streams at its main wastewater treatment plant, the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP). This treatment method, which is known as a biotrickling filter, uses a packed contactor device in which the air to be treated is blown through the packing. The H{sub 2}S and odor is removed by a scrubbing solution containing bacteria that is trickled down from the top of the contactor. Different types of column packing media were tested, with a rock-based media being the most effective. The rock media allowed the biotrickling filter to get over 98 percent removal of inlet H{sub 2}S, as long as H{sub 2}S loadings did not exceed 39 g-H{sub 2}S/m{sup 3}-hr (1.1 g-H{sub 2}S/ft{sup 3}-hr). Odor panel analyses indicated that inlet odors were reduced by 99 percent by the biotrickling filter. Due to the success of the research work, a full scale biotrickling filter is being put into operation at the JWPCP. The unit will replace existing caustic scrubbers and will be much less expensive to operate. Current costs to operate a caustic scrubber at the JWPCP is about $$1,150 per million m{sup 3} ($$33.00 per million ft3) of air treated. The biotrickling filter operational costs would be about one-fifth or $$240 per million m{sup 3} ($$7.00 per million ft{sup 3}) of air treated.
- OSTI ID:
- 351078
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970677-; TRN: IM9925%%240
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 90. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, Toronto (Canada), 8-13 Jun 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of 1997 proceedings of the Air and Waste Management Association`s 90. annual meeting and exhibition; PB: [7000] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Elimination of toluene vapors in biotrickling filters: Performance and carbon balances
Elimination of alkanes from off-gases using biotrickling filters containing two liquid phases