What type of Odor Control Scrubber do I select?
It's a common question many customers and design professionals ask in the Odor Control Industry when selecting, engineering, and deciding on the best odor control process to utilize to treat gases and noxious odors. An odor control system is comparable to choosing a car in many ways because you have many different options. Each odor control scrubber comes in different types to address the different variations within the industry. For example, odor control scrubbers are designed to treat “ammonia” and other ones to treat “acid” off-gases. Odor control scrubbers utilize “acid” or “caustic” as the scrubbing reagent to neutralize an off gas.
Odor control scrubbers also come with different purchase prices, each with different operating costs. It is always important to analyze the operating cost of the odor control solution you select because several different types may perform equally. Each may have varying initial purchase costs, but you should ask and understand, “what will the continued operating cost” be for the type of odor control system selected? And how long will the scrubber I selected last before additional costs are needed for any significant repairs to keep it running? When you are a design professional, if you choose an odor control system that is difficult or expensive to maintain, you can be assured you will have continued phone calls from customers looking for answers and solutions.
The industry may soon change with the adaption of “artificial intelligence” as AI is slowly incorporated into the market. Companies like DeLoach Industries are now incorporating the first variation of artificial intelligence into their odor control scrubber line of products to help owners and operators with real-time information and data communications. Remember that many types of odor control systems work and remove odors, but selecting and designing a system that works efficiently and effectively without breaking the bank can be challenging. A design professional should evaluate the cost of the reagents utilized in an odor control scrubber at any specific location because the cost of “caustic” in one location may vary from another. Or the cost of “acid” may have different base costs or handling costs and considerations. For a design professional and the supplier of the system, it is essential to consider what an owner and or their operators will be faced with to maintain the odor control system over the long term and what the anticipated operating cost will be both on a day to day basis and a long term service replacement basis.
Odor Control systems come in different types
of processes, and most manufacturers or sales representatives will recommend what they are most familiar with or what they sell. This does not necessarily mean that the process types they are representing as the best system will not work, but it could, however, mean that it may or may not be the best choice or offer the most cost-effective treatment. Let’s step back and look at different types of odor control processes and examine briefly what each process offers and what, if any, limitations they each have. First, we will dismiss the variety of “masking agent systems” as odor control scrubbers not because they may not have a place in the market but rather because they do not actually “react” or “convert” the odorous or corrosive gas into a neutral form of gas. Instead, they only cover up the odorous gas in the same manner as when you add room freshener to improve the smell of a room and hide the bad smell. For this reason, we will only discuss what we believe are active types of odor control scrubbers.
A traditional odor control scrubber process that has been around for years is known as a “chemical scrubber.” Much like the name indicates, this odor control scrubber utilizes and depends upon one or more chemicals to “react” and “convert” an odorous gas into a different gas form and neutralize the odorous smell.
Chemical odor control scrubbers often come in “single or dual” pass systems and utilize scrubbing reagents like “caustic” or “acids.” The term single or dual pass means one or two packed vertical columns in series to provide the required mixing and reaction time. There are also times that there is a need to have two or more towers in series because it takes two different types of reactions to treat the odorous gas such as “hydrogen sulfide” and the chemicals like “caustic and acid” needed to require independent mixing and contact with the gas to neutralize the odor or neutralize the corrosive gas when treating lower pH off-gas streams. Suppose the in-fluent gas concentrations are high enough. In that case, an operator or owner could experience weekly or monthly costs related solely to tower maintenance, such as cleaning and media replacement (artificial intelligence will soon let you know) if the tower is not designed correctly for the anticipated heavy concentrations. In addition to the high consumption of chemicals, the tower may require neutralizing the odorous gas. When designers at DeLoach Industries examine an off-gas stream with odors or corrosive “acid-type gases like “hydrogen sulfide” gas, we run simulation models and calculations to examine both the initial capital cost of the equipment, its performance capabilities, and the ongoing operational costs. We understand that operational cost is often greater than the initial capital cost. In addition to chemical odor control scrubbers, there are different types of systems, including; Biological Scrubbers for “hydrogen sulfide” treatment, carbon absorption scrubbers for other forms of VOCs, and chilled water scrubbers for “either.” The professionals at DeLoach Industries are available to assist you in your design process. Please give us a call at (941) 371-4995.
