Industrial odor control is an emerging application for ozone. We recently came across a news item describing work done at NC State and the U of Georgia regarding the use of ozone and catalysts for the destruction of odor causing VOC in the poultry industry. Dr. Praveen Kolar, of NC State, is the lead investigator.
Rendering facilities take animal byproducts (e.g., skin, bones, feathers) and process them into useful products such as fertilizer. These rendering processes produces foul odors. While not currently regulated these odor create problems with the communities where the rendering facility is located.
Chemical scrubbers can reduce the impact of these odors, but have limited impact on some of the compounds such as aldehydes. Kolar, working with his co-author Dr. James Kastner at the University of Georgia, have designed an effective process that uses catalytic oxidation to remove these odor-causing pollutants. The process uses ozone and specially-designed catalysts to break down the odor-causing compounds. This process takes place at room temperature, so there are no energy costs, and results in only two byproducts: carbon dioxide and pure water.
Dr. Kolar’s next goal is to apply this research to industrial hog farms and to develop the technology to a larger scale. Dr Kolar’s work was published in the following journal. ROOM?TEMPERATURE OXIDATION OF PROPANAL USING CATALYSTS SYNTHESIZED BY ELECTROCHEMICAL DEPOSITION, P. Kolar, J. R. Kastner, Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 52(4): 1337-1344, 2009 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers ISSN 0001-2351