Solutions

Increasingly, food & feed manufacturers are being required to address the issue of release of odour and harmful contaminants into the surrounding community. Local communities, special interest groups and government legislation all bring pressure to factories to minimize real or perceived risks of contamination. There are no universally applied standards for odour or Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions, and to provide solutions that fit specific factory needs can be challenging. There is no single solution but understanding the food manufacturers problems certainly helps a great deal.

In recent years, there have been numerous changes regarding where production facilities are situated. Factory closures and relocation of manufacturing units has become commonplace. At the same time urban sprawl has resulted in residential areas being built closer to previously remote industrial areas. Another pressure companies face is meeting local environmental needs. So what does the industry need from its odour abatement equipment? This is a complex question and the answer needs to include:

A compact design minimizing space requirements
End of pipe solution
Low running cost
Minimal maintenance
Ability to operate at normal food manufacturing temperatures, to avoid cooling costs
High odour removal efficiency
No chemical additions and need to maintain chemistry
No liquid effluent waste
Instant on/off – no warm up time
Modular construction, ease of relocation if change of production location and ease the ability to add on modules according to required capacity
Competitive capital cost

A comparative study of alternative technologies and solutions could look like the table below:

	Chemical scrubber	Bio-filtration	Activated carbon	Ozone systems	Thermal plasma	Non-thermal plasma
Investment cost
Operations cost
Operational flexibility
Odour removal efficiency
Energy consumption
Water consumption
Effluent release
Space requirements
Pressure drop
Need for chemical additives
Need for catalysts
Hygiene
Environm. friendly solution