A Method for Choosing Between Carbon Media Alternatives for Wastewater Odor Control

King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) uses deep bed, solid media air pollution control scrubbers to prevent odor emissions from many of its conveyance system facilities. As a review of its methods, WTD recently examined media alternatives that could be used to best control odors from these facilities. To date various forms of carbon media have been used almost to the exclusion of other commercially available alternatives. Review of available dry media products was conducted to determine if one or more would be technically and financially advantageous to materials currently in use. This paper will discuss commercially available dry media for wastewater odor control, the physical and chemical processes by which odorous compounds are removed by the media and WTD’s process of evaluation used to select appropriate media for its odor control systems.