The emission of unpleasant odors in wastewater treatment plants is mainly due to the treatment of biological sludge, due to its high organic matter concentration. This study, conducted by CENTA in Carrión de los Céspedes (Seville), evaluates the efficiency of organic matter and nutrient removal, as well as the derived odor emissions from various technologies.
The highest odor emission rates were found in anaerobic lagoons, facultative lagoons, and septic tanks. Two indices were defined to relate odor emissions to the efficiency of organic matter removal (OGIC) and combined organic matter and nitrogen removal (OGICN). The highest efficiency values were found in free-flowing gravel wetlands and anaerobic lagoons. A principal component analysis grouped the technologies evaluated based on hydraulic retention time and pH.
Gutiérrez, M.C. 1*, Martín, M.A. 1, Ruiz-Muñoz, A. 1, Márquez, P. 1, Toledo, M. 2, Salas, J.J. 3, Siles, J.A. 1
1 Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química (Área de Ingeniería Química). Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba. Instituto Químico para la Energía y el Medioambiente (IQUEMA). Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (ceiA3). Campus Universitario de Rabanales. Carretera N-IV, km 396, 14071. Córdoba, España.
2 Instituto de Procesos Sostenibles, Área de Ingeniería Química. Universidad de Valladolid. Dr. Mergelina, s/n, Valladolid, 47011, España.
3 Fundación Centro de las Nuevas Tecnologías del Agua (CENTA). A-49, km 28. 41820. Carrión de los Céspedes, Sevilla, España.
* mc.gutierrez@uco.es
Competing interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
Academic editor: Carlos N Díaz.
Content quality: This paper has not been peer-reviewed.
Citation: Gutiérrez, M.C., Martín, M.A., Ruiz-Muñoz, A., Márquez, P., Toledo, M., Salas, J.J., Siles, J.A., 2024, Odorous impact of extensive urban wastewater treatment: a growing challenge, ODORA24 Conference, Barakaldo, Spain, www.olores.org.
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Keywords: Dynamic olfactometry; extensive wastewater treatment; efficacy; odor generation index (OGI); small urban WWTP; chemometric analysis.
Abstract
The unpleasant odours emission in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is mainly due to the treatment of biological sludge, because of its organic matter concentration. Additionally, the emission surface increases in the so-called extensive technologies, although the degradation kinetics is slower. The Fundación Centro de las Nuevas Tecnologías del Agua (CENTA) treats wastewater from the municipality of Carrión de los Céspedes (Seville, Spain) (2500 inhab-eq.; 10,3 m3/h), with a wide range of technologies, predominantly extensive ones. The aim of this study is the simultaneous evaluation of the removal efficiency of organic matter and macronutrients in these wastewaters, by means of different purification technologies, and the derived odour emissions (dynamic olfactometry). Of the technologies and units sampled (15 points in total, 3 campaigns), it was found that the most significant odour emission rate (OER) was derived from anaerobic lagoons (>600 ouE/s), facultative lagooning (>65 ouE/s) and a septic tank (>20 ouE/s). For this study, two novel indices have been defined that relate the OER to the efficiency of total organic matter removal (OGIC) and to the combined efficiency of total organic matter removal with nitrogen (OGICN). As results obtained, the highest values of OGIC (>23.000 ouE/g O2) and OGICN (>14.500 ouE/g) were found in free-flowing gravel wetland and anaerobic lagoon, respectively. Finally, a principal component analysis was used to group the technologies evaluated, relating hydraulic retention time and pH to odour emission in technologies where denitrification predominates.
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