Abstract
Oxidation of malodorous compounds such as volatile organic compounds (VOC), hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and volatile organic sulphur compounds (VOSC) generally leads to a significant decrease or even a complete elimination of their odour nuisance. Unfortunately, the oxidation rates of these compounds are often slow under standard conditions of temperature and atmospheric pressure. Even the oxidation rates of easily oxidisable compounds can still be too limited for complete oxidation and elimination of their odour nuisance. The latter is often related to the very low odour threshold values of these compounds, which can easily be in the ppb range. For instance, although H2S is oxidised quite easily under standard conditions (Kamei and Ohmoto 2000), it is one of the most frequent causes of odour nuisance from waste treatment processes. This chapter overviews the principles of catalytic oxidation processes and gives examples of their application in the area of odour abatement. It should be noted that many of these catalytic oxidation processes are studied mainly for their capacity to remove several well-defined compounds. Thus, these studies mainly report on the removal efficiency of these compounds and mostly do not present data on the odour removal efficiency.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Odours in Wastewater Treatment |
Publisher | IWA Publishing |
Pages | 365-395 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781900222464 |
Publication status | Published - 2001 |