Airdar Helps Detect Odours

Nuisance odours pose a challenge to the composting industry. In 2019, a Canadian composting facility was under pressure because of odour concerns. The composting facility in question is located in an area with several other players nearby, including a recycling facility, an oil and gas field, a large lake, and a wastewater lift station. While all odours experienced by the surrounding neighbourhood were quickly attributed to the composting facility, the facility managers believed that there could be other sources in the area that needed to be addressed. To help them determine all the sources of the odours and improve their operations, the facility managers turned to the Airdar team. 

An Airdar system was deployed at the facility and was operational from October 2019 to March 2020. During this monitoring period, two focal points of H2S emissions were identified on the site with average emission rates of 35.1 L/min and 30.6 L/min. The system also identified a plume of H2S coming from the direction of several of the potential off-site emission sources, which may further explain the odours being experienced in the community. Based on the information provided by Airdar, the client made interventions at the facility to reduce the odours coming from the two emission focal points. Additional monitoring was performed from October 2020 to January 2021 and showed that the interventions made at the facility had reduced on-site H2S emissions by 80%.

The results thus far have been instrumental in helping the client improve their operations and in identifying potential off-site emission sources.