Sewage Odour
Sewage is wastewater sourced from household discharges (sinks, showers and baths, toilets, washing machines etc), commercial and industrial activities and sometimes storm drains.
Sewage carries biological and chemical contaminants the nature of which will depend on the activities within the catchment and treatment area. Sewage is treated to remove these contaminants to ensure the effluent stream is biologically and chemically safe before discharging it back to the environment.
Under anaerobic conditions in presence of bacteria, sewage effluent produces malodourous gaseous compounds arising from the breakdown of organic material. The main odours produced are hydrogen sulphide (H2S), with a characteristic rotten egg smell; mercaptans (thiols, R-SH), which resemble smelly socks or decaying cabbages (e.g., methyl and ethyl mercaptan); and ammonia (NH3), which has a pungent, urine-like odour.
Activated Carbon is used to remove these unpleasant offending odours. VOC’s are efficiently removed using steam activated carbon. H2S, other sulphur species and acid gases are treated using enhanced products either chemically impregnated activated carbons or high capacity surface modified and catalytic non- impregnated carbons. Historically chemically impregnated carbons have been heavily utilised in H2S acid gas removal. Potassium hydroxide and Potassium iodide bring commonly used impregnants. This type while able to target acid gas species, has a reduced ability to adsorb the organic vapours in the sewage odour mix.
Jacobi AddSorb™
View on jacobi.net ↗Jacobi AddSorb series activated carbon Specially treated activated carbon products enhance removal efficiency of hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide, methyl mercaptan and amines. These are often used in combination with
Typically, a layer of non- impregnated steam activated carbon is incorporated as layer in the odour removal vessel specifically to remove VOC’s. Nowadays while we carry the range of standard impregnated Addsorb products, Jacobi’s Addsorb OX30 coconut shell-based surface enhanced activated carbon is increasingly the preferred option. AddSorbTM OX30 is a high-performance activated carbon, based on a sustainable raw material, exhibiting an enhanced capacity for the removal of Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S).
The product is manufactured using a unique process, which establishes the high H2S capacity without the use of a chemical impregnation being applied to the activated carbon. In its place, a reactive surface functionality is established which can convert H2S to sulphur compounds which may be physically adsorbed. In addition, the product retains an appreciable capacity for organic contaminants.