A test of relative removal properties of various offensive odors by zeolite

Abstract

The adsorptive removal properties of synthetic A4 zeolite were investigated against a total of 16 offensive odors consisting of reduced sulfur compounds (RSCs), nitrogenous compounds (NCs), volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and phenols/indoles (PnI). Removal of these odors was measured using a laboratory-scale impinger-based adsorption setup containing 25 g of the zeolite bed (flow rate of 100 mL min(-1)). The high est and lowest breakthrough (%) values were shown for PnIs and RSCs, respectively, and the maximum and minimum adsorption capacity (mu g g(-1)) of the zeolite was observed for the RSCs (range of 0.77-3.4) and PnIs (0.06-0.104), respectively. As a result of sorptive removal by zeolite, a reduction in odor strength, measured as odor intensity (OI), was recorded from the minimum of approximately 0.7 OI units (indole [from 2.4 to 1.6]), skatole [2.2 to 1.4], and p-cresol [5.1 to 4.4]) to the maximum of approximately 4 OI units (methanethiol [11.4 to 7.5], n-valeric acid [10.4 to 6.5], i-butyric acid [7.9 to 4.4], and propionic acid [7.2 to 3.7]). Likewise, when removal was examined in terms of odor activity value (OAV), the extent of reduction was significant (i.e., 1000-fold) in the increasing order of amy acetate, i-butyric acid, phenol, propionic acid, and ammonia.