Tasty Relief From Paper Mill Odors?
Ever smell the surroundings of a paper mill? It ain’t pretty. In an effort to deal with this problem, a researcher says he is working on biofiltration techniques that use bacteria to "eat" air pollutant byproducts. Read More
Ever smell the surroundings of a paper mill? It ain’t pretty. In an effort to deal with this problem, a researcher says he is working on biofiltration techniques that use bacteria to “eat” air pollutant byproducts.
According to Grant Allen, director of the University of Toronto’s pulp and paper center chemical engineering department, this bacterial action works to filter out the smell coming from pulping operations.
“All industrial processes have air emissions and, in the case of pulp and paper mills, the smell can be quite overwhelming,” Allen said. “This biofilter operates like a mini ecosystem. It’s a microbial community that degrades the pollutant and breaks down the compounds which cause the odor.”
Allen uses wood chips or plastic spheres coated in bacteria that metabolize, or “eat” the sulfur compounds that cause the foul odors. The bacteria-laden materials are then placed in the emission stream at the end of the manufacturing process. When the bacteria remove the sulfur compounds from the air stream, they remove the smell as well.
In a paper published last fall, Allen and his co-researchers explain how they managed to create a biofilter that operates in temperatures as high as 70° C (158° F). Pulp and paper mills emit gas streams that range from 50° to 70° C.
The application of this technology goes beyond pulp and paper, Allen says, as it can be used in any industry that produces biodegradable air pollutants and is low cost, low maintenance and environmentally friendly.
