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This paper focuses on recent developments of biofiltration technology used in treating nuisance chemical odors from industrial and municipal air streams. In the biofiltration process, odorous chemical constituents in the air are first transported to biofilms by diffusion, solubilization and adsorption processes. Bacteria within the biofilms oxidize odor constituents into harmless and odorless products. Through successful laboratory and pilot research on biofiltration of odorous air-stream constituents, numerous commercial biofilters have been designed and installed across North America. In this paper, case studies related to biofiltration of air emissions from meat rendering plants, municipal wastewater treatment applications, and printed circuit board production are discussed to demonstrate the robustness of this technology in eliminating a wide variety of compounds.

This paper presents a case study of a commercial biofilter, treating air streams contaminated with several odorous compounds including dimethyl sulfide, ammonia, methanethiol, hydrogen sulfide and ethylamine. The biofilter is packed with a proprietary wood-based (BIOMIX 2 ) medium which is designed to provide a good biological environment, pH buffer capacity, low pressure drop and resistance to compaction. This commercial biofilter treats a contaminated air volume of 15 000 actual cubic feet per minute (acfm) from a meat rendering and wastewater treatment operation with a 30-s empty bed residence time. The case study includes a novel gas sampling procedure and characterization of biofilter air streams through a mobile Fourier transform infrared system and olfactometer analysis. The results confirmed the good distribution of air, moisture and bacterial population across the medium. Four years of consistent performance of this commercial biofilter with >99% removal of 24 500 odor units demonstrates that biofilters can be successfully applied for the removal of highly odorous gaseous sulfur compounds.

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