Abstract
The release of air pollutants from the operation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is often a cause of odor annoyance for the people living in the surrounding area. Odors have been indeed recently classified as atmospheric pollutants and are the main cause of complaints to local authorities. In this context, the implementation of effective treatment solutions is of key importance for urban water cycle management. This work presents a critical review of the state of the art of odor treatment technologies (OTTs) applied in full-scale WWTPs to address this issue. An overview of these technologies is given by discussing their strengths and weaknesses. A sensitivity analysis is presented, by considering land requirements, operational parameters and efficiencies, based on data of full-scale applications. The investment and operating costs have been reviewed with reference to the different OTTs. Biofilters and biotrickling filters represent the two most applied technologies for odor abatement at full-scale plants, due to lower costs and high removal efficiencies. An analysis of the odors emitted by the different wastewater treatment units is reported, with the aim of identifying the principal odor sources. Innovative and sustainable technologies are also presented and discussed, evaluating their potential for full-scale applicability.
Highlights
Odorants arise from many anthropogenic sources, such as refineries, petrochemical industries, livestock production, food processing, chemical factories, and sanitary environmental facilities [1]
The present review aims to categorize and critically analyze different abatement and control technologies applied to WWTPs for odor management
Sensorial approaches such as dynamic olfactometry, field inspection and recording from residents are based on how humans respond to emissions, while analytical methods, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), identification of specific compounds, infrared and electrochemical sensors, etc., are based on a laboratory Senso-analytical methods are the most promising
Summary
Odorants arise from many anthropogenic sources, such as refineries, petrochemical industries, livestock production, food processing, chemical factories, and sanitary environmental facilities [1]. Pollutants generated during the treatment of wastewater can bring physical and psychological discomfort to the people living in the surrounding area of the plants [5,9] Some odorous compounds such as hydrogen sulfide (H2 S), ammonia (NH3 ) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) might lead psychological impacts to humans such as anger, mood disturbance, depression, etc., as well as health effects such as headaches, eye sores and mucous membrane irritation, dizziness and other respiratory-related problems [10,11]. The utilization of structures for covering the different treatment units in WWTPs minimizes odor emissions, disperses them in the atmosphere and reduces evaporation In this way, less water and chemicals are required in the wastewater treatment process. It is essential to compare technologies at the industrial scale to show the robustness of the process under working flows fluctuation and wide range of pollutant concentrations
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