BIOREM Inc. announced today a new biofiltration media called XLD, the result of five years of extensive research and development with the support of the National Research Council of Canada through the Industrial Research Assistance Program. XLD is targeted at the removal of odours from the handling of biosolids at municipal wastewater treatment plants.
“The global market for odour control in municipal applications is estimated at over $1 billion per year. Over half of this market is currently provided by chemical scrubbers,” said Peter Bruijns, president and CEO.
Biosolids generate highly odorous sulfur compounds that traditionally require larger biofilters to achieve acceptable removal rates. However, by using an XLD biofilter, BIOREM claims, the size can be reduced by up to 50 per cent of conventional units while also having greater removal capacity. “Scrubbers consume large amounts of chemicals and more than twice the electricity of an XLD biofilter,” says Bruijns. “An XLD biofilter is more environmentally friendly and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas reductions.”
During field trials, XLD consistently achieved up to 99 per cent removal of odorous compounds in approximately half of the industry’s standard residence time. This compares favorably with conventional biofilter technologies that rarely achieve removal rates above 95 per cent.
Biofilters have been used for odour control since the early 1990s and have evolved as an environmentally conscious technology for odour control in municipal wastewater treatment plants and collection systems.
