Biological degradation of odorous air pollutants

An offensive and prolonged smell that significantly interferes with the enjoyment and use of the affected property is known as odor nuisance. It can cause adverse health effects such as emotional unease, eye irritation, and respiratory problems. The most significant odorous gases are volatile organic compounds, nitrogen compounds including ammonia, and sulfur compounds including hydrogen sulfide. Major sources of these pollutants are animal farms, various chemical as well as food- and feed-processing industries, waste treatment or disposal facilities, and wastewater treatment plants. As more and more countries adopt regulations that prohibit business organizations from emitting strong odors, various technologies for removal of odorous compounds from waste gases are in use. Physical and chemical processes, such as activated carbon adsorption, ozone oxidation, catalytic oxidation, and incineration, are characterized by rather high energy requirements and high treatment costs. As more sustainable processes, microbiological odor treatment methods using various types of air filtration equipment are introduced. Their advantages include absence of explosion risk, operation at near atmospheric pressure and temperature range 10-40 °C, no secondary waste generation, less energy requirements. This chapter will review microbiological odor treatment methods and summarize authors' experience of development and applications of compact trickle-bed bioreactor for odors removal from ventilation air discharged from various industrial facilities.