Odor Emissions from Anaerobically Digested Biosolids During Onsite Storage and Land Application: Impacts of Lime Dosing and the Type of Dewatering Process Used (Belt Presses Versus Centrifuges)

Abstract

Odor emissions data were collected during a Biosolids Fecal Coliform Regrowth Study in order to gain insight into odor emissions from anaerobically digested biosolids stored on site and during land application. Sampling and concentration analyses were completed for the following: odor (in terms of dilutions to threshold), ammonia, speciated sulfur compounds, volatile organic compounds, speciated amine compounds, and volatile organic acids. The effects of liming centrifuge dewatered biosolids were assessed, and comparison was made of belt filter pressdewatered versus centrifuge-dewatered biosolids. KEYWORDS Biosolids, Land application, Odor• Real time field evaluation of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia, and amine odors• Odor panel analysis of bag samples following ASTM method E679-04• Gas chromatograph/flame photometric detection (GC/FPD) following ASTM method D5504-01 for 20 typical reduced-sulfur-compounds• Mass spectroscopy analysis of bag samples using modified EPA Method TO-15

Odorants and Malodors Associated with Land Application of Biosolids Stabilized with Lime and Coal Fly Ash

“…These differences could also be attributed to the different dewatering processes. It was previously suggested that higher shear forces (as in centrifugation) release more labile proteins, which then serve as the source for generation of reduced sulfur VOCs (Subramanian et al, 2005; Feltner et al, 2008). However, a comparison between the two dewatering methods cannot be made based on present data because the two dewatering methods were not compared for one sludge source.…”