Odor Control & Air Emissions Guide

 
• Established in 1959

"The oldest, most respected water, wastewater, and odor control and air emission manufacturer in the USA."

Odor control and air emissions cover many types of off-gas contaminants that are regulated by law, by standard, or simply by need. These emissions show up as some form of off-gas condition, whether noxious, corrosive, or dangerous to people and animals.

Because of those risks, air emissions and the processes that create them are carefully regulated in many countries, and the United States maintains the most stringent requirements of all. This guide looks at the common odor control problems tied to off-gas emissions, and the treatments used today to process them, stay compliant, and keep working environments safe.

• THE SOURCES

Common Sources of Air Emissions

Agriculture
Asphalt Production
Chemical Production
Food Processing
Industrial
Municipal
Painting Industry
Petroleum Refining
Semi-Conductor Industry
And more
• SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Scrubber Sizes & Materials

The industry has developed a range of processes to capture, treat, and neutralize odors and off-gas emissions. These systems are commonly called odor control scrubbers, and they let facilities operate safely and stay in regulatory compliance.

Most scrubbers are vertically packed towers, though some are shorter and shaped more like a box, for indoor use or where height is restricted. Vertical towers can be built from steel, stainless steel, fiberglass, or PVC. Steel units are typically lined with a rubber or epoxy coating, while the other materials usually need no internal corrosion protection.

Across every shape and size, the common thread is the same: bring the contaminated airflow into contact with a treatment process.

odor control
• THE PROCESS

How Scrubbers Treat Air

↑
Vertical Tower
Contaminated air enters at the bottom, injected by a blower or ducted in, and rises through a media bed before exiting the top. Media type, bed depth, and tower diameter vary with the air stream's concentration, the hydraulic load, and the recirculating agent.
Chemical scrubber
A recirculation pump and chemical feed inject solution across the top of the media bed. It flows down by gravity, collects in the sump, and pumps back up in a continuous loop, removing contaminants by reaction or absorption as it meets the rising air.
↔
Horizontal Flow
A cross-flow scrubber moves air sideways across the media instead of upward. The air still contacts the media and treatment chemicals, but the unit is much shorter, which suits height-limited sites when concentrations are not too high.
• TREATMENT SOLUTIONS

Chemical vs. Biological Scrubbers 

• Chemical

Industrial chemical scrubbers

Built to treat specific contaminant levels in single-stage or two-stage (dual-pass) configurations, using chemical reagents or a water recirculation process. A common example is the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) scrubber at water plants, where H2S is released during degasification after reverse osmosis or membrane filtration. Untreated, those off-gases (high in H2S and CO2) corrode equipment, create noxious odors, and become hazardous above 1 PPM. They are also used in wastewater, food processing, and semiconductor plants, where they are sometimes called fume or acid fume scrubbers.
• Biological

Biological scrubbers

These use active bacteria colonies grown on a media bed and acclimated to the specific contaminant, which becomes the bacteria's food source. A recirculation system controls moisture and delivers nutrients, and the pH must be maintained to keep the colony healthy. They work well on organic and inorganic gas streams and perform best when concentrations are steady. If levels spike beyond what the colony can handle, untreated gas can break through. The right choice depends on the contaminant, its concentration, and whether you are treating an odor or neutralizing a corrosive gas.
• WHAT TO CONSIDER

Choosing the Right Scrubber

Selection means balancing performance against capital cost, operating cost, and ease of operation. The capital cost of the equipment is often the smallest part of the equation, so the decision is usually best left to experienced design professionals. Choose the wrong scrubber and it can underperform and leave untreated emissions, while also carrying a high operating cost, heavy maintenance, and frequent media cleaning or replacement.

Understand the parameters first

Knowing the dos and don'ts up front protects your equipment and electronics and can save thousands of dollars. Understand where the odorous gas comes from and how it is produced, how the system will be operated, and what makeup water is available. Water that is too hard can cause scaling and fouling of the media bed, an expensive problem to repair.

Makeup water, the recirculation solution, and the media-bed pH all need to be maintained. For a biological scrubber, makeup water that is hostile to the colony can reduce performance or kill it, so many variables should be examined carefully before selecting a system and its components

• AUTOMATION & MONITORING

Smarter Odor Control With AI

A scrubber failure can shut down a food plant, a semiconductor line, or an entire water treatment process, leaving a community without water. To help avoid costly shutdowns and breakthroughs, DeLoach Industries is building smart odor control equipment with artificial intelligence integrated into the systems it manufactures.

With AI, a scrubber can order its own chemicals when needed, notify a service provider when conditions change, and alert the operator with information. Letting the equipment monitor itself beyond normal controls improves uptime and reliability, prevents property damage, and helps safeguard people and the environment.

• BUILT BY DELOACH

Odor Control Systems
We Manufacture

DeLoach Industries brings more than 50 years of experience supplying petrochemical and other customers with engineered packaged systems for harsh environments, designed, manufactured, and shipped around the world. Every odor control system comes with complete design support, installation, startup training, and long-term operation and maintenance.

scrubber del 4

We specialize in these products to combat odors and reduce air emissions:

Odor Control Scrubbers
Biological Scrubbers
Chemical Scrubbers
Particulate Filtration
Prepackaged Filtration Skids
Custom Tank Covers
Fume Control
Dust Control
Portable Pilot Equipment
Containerized Treatment Systems
• READY TO INSTALL

Pre-packaged Scrubber Systems

Flow Capacity
70k–150k
SCFM for single pre-packaged systems
Flow Configuration
2 types
Counter-current or horizontal flow
Materials
4
Steel, stainless, fiberglass, and PVC
Chemistries
Many
Chemical, chlorine, ammonia, caustic, biological, carbon absorbers, potassium permanganate

DeLoach offers a complete line of pre-packaged odor control scrubbers for municipal, food, and industrial markets, built into containers or structures for local or overseas shipping. The range runs from simple HEPA air filtration to complex chemical and biological scrubbers, plus a proprietary line of closed-loop and low-profile systems. Our biological scrubbers remove H2S, VOCs, and other odors with high efficiency and corrosion resistance, minimizing chemical use and keeping operating costs low. Each system is sized to the customer, fully packaged with automation, and available skid-mounted or for slab installation.

Planning a Treatment Project?

Talk with a DeLoach professional today.