Odor control is a challenge not often discussed until someone complains! Every commercial and industrial building, every hospital and every industry has challenges with foul odors at some point, whether it comes from waste disposal, food waste and grease, or industrial processes. Rochester Midland Corporation is often asked by our customers if we have a solution to their odor control challenges and we do! One industry that has the potential for serious odor control issues is the county or city primary sewage treatment plant. One of the counties that RMC works with has years of fineable issues in their waste treatment plant. The plant had a consistent sludge removal problem, which resulted in 81 fines for violations. The issues centered at the plant’s aeration basins causing the plant to discharge solids into the county’s lake. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) stepped in to help resolve the past violations and reduce future issues. It was decided that the incinerators for this plant should be shut down and dismantled, which required all sludge to be transported to landfills.
As the sludge was being transported to landfills, there was an increase in odor complaints from the residents. RMC was asked to help provide a solution to minimize the odors coming from the sludge transport trucks and from the plant. The solution was an odor control product OC-300 provided in totes to the facility.
OC-300 is diluted via an automatic proportioner to a 7 – 8% solution. As the trucks are filled with the sludge, the diluted OC-300 is sprayed into the sludge over the entire length of the trailer. Forty-eight trucks carrying 65,000 pounds of sludge are transported each week from the plant (4 days per week, 12 trucks per day).
Between May and October while the residents are outside in their neighborhoods enjoying the warm weather, OC-300 is being used in a second application diluted at 7- 8% and is misted around the treatment tanks to control the odor emanating from the plant. As a result of the application of OC-300 around the treatment tanks and into the trucks hauling waste from the plant, there are no longer complaints from the community about odors from the plant.
Other potential applications for OC-300 to be used in odor control situations are in and around grease pits and sewage pits in hotels, commercial buildings and hospitals, in and around waste containers, in and around food processing plants and around the wastewater treatment areas for those facilities. Anywhere there are challenges with odor control, RMC has a potential solution with the application of OC-300 and the equipment to apply it.
