Industrial odor control scrubbers are air pollution control systems designed to remove or neutralize unpleasant and harmful odors from industrial exhaust gases before they are released into the atmosphere. These scrubbers are commonly used in industries like wastewater treatment plants, food processing, chemical manufacturing, composting, rendering plants, and pulp & paper mills, where odor emissions can be a serious problem for both workers and nearby communities.

Types of Odor Control Scrubbers

1. Wet Scrubbers

• Use a liquid (often water with chemicals) to capture and neutralize odor-causing compounds.

• Example: Caustic scrubbers (NaOH solution) for acidic gases like H₂S.

• Can also include biological scrubbers where microbes break down odor molecules.

  
  

2. Dry Scrubbers

• Use dry sorbents like activated carbon, zeolite, or impregnated media to adsorb odor molecules.

• Effective for VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and sulfur-based odors.

• Lower water usage but requires periodic media replacement.

  
  

3. Biological Scrubbers / Biofilters

• Utilize naturally occurring microorganisms to biologically degrade odor-causing compounds (H₂S, NH₃, VOCs).

• Environmentally friendly and cost-effective for continuous odor control.

  
  

  

Common Odor-Causing Compounds

• Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) – rotten egg smell

• Ammonia (NH₃) – pungent odor

• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) – solvents, aldehydes, ketones, etc.

• Mercaptans – skunk-like smell

• Fatty acids & amines – common in food and rendering industries

How Industrial Odor Scrubbers work

XICHENG odor control scrubbers have one or more independent stages. In stage 1, gas contacts an acidic scrubbing liquid to neutralize the ammonia component. H2SO4, at 10% concentration, is used down to a pH of 2. High-efficiency Polyhedral ball packing is the standard tower packing media, with load inlet ppm determining packing depth. Scrubbing performance in all cases is guaranteed to be below detectable limits.

In stage 2, air contacts an alkali scrubbing liquid such as sodium hydroxide. Sodium hypochlorite and similar oxidizers may be added to enhance scrubber efficiency.

Sulphur and other compositions may require acid, caustic and/or oxidation stages.

Applications

Applications include food and flavors processing, breweries, pet food manufacturing, chemical and petrochemical facilities, waste treatment, asphalt manufacturing, and papermaking/ packaging. XICHENG systems are proven effective against industry’s most challenging odors, including:

1. Hydrogen sulfide: For inlet concentrations up to 4000 ppb, the concentration at the outlet or the odor control system will be less than 1 ppb. This is the lowest reported odor concentration.

2. Methyl mercaptan: For inlet concentrations up to 100 ppb, the concentration at the outlet for the odor control system will be less than 0.05 ppb, which is within the range of reported odor threshold concentrations.

3. Dimethyl sulfide: For inlet concentrations up to 1000 ppb, the concentration at the outlet for the odor control system will be less than 0.3 ppb. This is the lowest reported odor threshold concentration.

4. Carbon disulfide: For inlet concentrations up to 100 ppb, the concentration at the outlet for the odor control system will be less than 16 ppb, which is the lowest reported odor threshold concentration.

5. n-Propyl mercaptan: For inlet concentrations up to 2200 ppb, the concentration at the outlet for the odor control system will be less than 5 ppb.