Ecolo Odor Control Systems Worldwide

With some 10,000 tonnes of waste being landfilled each week, the compaction and leveling is done by two Caterpillar 826 bulldozers and a Cate D8L dozer.

South-easterly winds can cause odors that may arise from the site to be carried towards the village of East Tillbury, resulting in a corresponding high level of complaints from local residents.

Geoff Richmond, Operations Manager, had tried other odor abatement systems but with limited degrees of success. Both he and Ecolo felt that for his application, a good way of dealing with the problem would be some form of system which traveled with the bulldozers.

Earlier this year, Ecolo Odor Control Systems, who manufacture airSolution, a range of blends of natural essential oils used in the company’s odor treatment system, had contacted Cory Environmental with proposals to develop a delivery system that could be mounted on its bulldozers. Cory expressed interest in the proposal and introduced Ecolo to one of Caterpillar’s UK dealers, so that technical details could be provided for possible mounting positions for the Ecolo vortex tube and available compressed air supply. The system includes the vortex tube into which the spray nozzles are fitted and to which the compressed air supply lines are fixed. The compressed air is drawn off the bulldozer’s own OEM compressor via a supplementary air tank and fed into the Ecolo control unit fitted adjacent to the main airSolution supply tank. Both are mounted on the engine casing of the bulldozer. The supply tank holds sufficient volume for one day’s work and this is replenished prior to the bulldozer starting the next working day. The system does not require any further attention during the day from site operatives

As the refuse is tipped, moved and compacted, malodors are produced. According to Ecolo, the system works with the solution being sprayed from the roof of the Caterpillar bulldozer bonding with the odor-creating molecules. The company states that the natural essential oils neutralize the odor, eliminating it on contact. Ecolo adds that the resultant biodegradation produces a reversion to elemental carbon dioxide, water, oxygen and nitrogen.

As the system is mobile, the solution is delivered at the point at which the greatest volume of odor is generated. Under test working, Ecolo and Cory report that the effectiveness of this method of odor control quickly became apparent, not onlyto the residents of East Tillbury, but also to the operatives on the landfill site.

Olfactory testing in the village while the bulldozer unit was spraying did not sense any malodor in the area, it is reported. The residents complaints, as logged by Cory, dropped from a maximum of 20 per day, when the Ecolo System was not in operation, to one, or fewer, per day when it was in action. Cory’s Geoff Richmond is now convinced that his original idea has been translated into reality by the Ecolo equipment and the copyright of concept, design and drawings has now been registered.

Cory Environmental now plans to fit the Ecolo System on the other bulldozer and the dozer on the landfill site to ensure that there is a continual coverage of any potential odor problems. Ecolo Odor Control Systems headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, reports similar success in controlling compost, wastewater, livestock and other odors.