Ecolo Odor Control Systems Worldwide

at a level of only 0.4 parts per billion (ppb) (Brown & LeMay, 1988). Few compounds can be detected by the human nose at such a low level of concentration. Hydrogen sulfide is produced naturally by anaerobic decomposition of any type of organic or inorganic matter that contains sulfur (Nagl, 1996).
The odour generated from hydrogen sulfide gas, whether present in nature, produced by nature, or produced by human activity, presents severe health hazards at any

concentration. Several examples of common man made producers of H2S and its odourous emissions include landfill sites, steel manufacturing plants in their thermal treating coke ovens, and food processing plants with the collection of by product in wastewater holding ponds. This article describes the successful elimination of H2S odours at a wastewater holding pond in Winchester, Ontario, Canada.

The odour elimination was accomplished using a process and formulation designed by ECOLO Odor Control Systems Worldwide, and was implemented by a local distributor of the ECOLO products, Prima Services of Quebec.

In the Spring of 1996, the residents of Winchester, Ontario, began to notice an obnoxious odour coming from the direction of the Ault Foods cheese processing plant. According to one nearby reminiscent of a human fecal smel. This foul odour was actually emanating from the wastewater storage lagoons of the Ault foods cheese processing plant.

The sludge that is stored in the lagoons is the company’s cheese processing waste products. In a normal year the waste would have been distributed to local farmers wo, in turn, use it as a fertilizer. Unfortunately an unseasonably wet spring prevented farmers from getting the sludge onto the fields, causing it to accumulate in large amounts within the lagoons and to decompose at an increased rate. It is this process of decomposition that created increased concentrations of H2S and the obnoxious odour that goes along with it.

Complaints of the odur started immediately, most of them coming from the residents closest to the plant, in the north end of the village. Some complained directly to the company, and others complained to the Ministry of Environment. Ault foods took the problem seriously right away, first by looking at fixing the current situation, and also by investigating a permanent solution.

Due to rising number of complaints, Marcel Boudreault, General Manager of Prima Services Quebec, contacted Rob Edwards to offer a solution to his odour problem, an ECOLO Odor Control System dispensing airSolution. ECOLO’s airSolution is a precise formulation of essential oils that are