[Trisha]

There are industrial RNG plants that successfully manage odour. In Elmira, Ontario, Canada there is a large facility that receives food waste and highly contaminated feedstocks. It is built right by neighbourhoods, but it receives no odour complaints. The company prioritizes odor management, both in their engineering design and in operations.

Odour emanates from the feedstock itself, as well as the digestate if the biology in the digester is upset. No odour should come from the digester itself because it is a gas tight system. Odour risk is higher in the feedstock receiving and digestate storage areas. But I would focus on the receiving area for sure.

In the receiving area, some things you can do:

• Receive material indoors
• The door to the receiving area only opens when there is a truck unloading feedstock
• Keep the indoor receiving area at a negative/vacuum pressure so that when the door opens, the air flows in from the outside instead of odours escaping out
• If you have a receiving pit, invest in a cover

The easiest engineering solution for digestate odour would be to store it in a covered tank. Digestate should not have odours. Digestate odour is a sign of biological upset. While Azura doesn’t currently have an article on odour, we do have an article on how to keep your digester biology happy to reduce odour risk from your digestate: https://azuraassociates.com/digester-biology-top-10/

Looking for ways to manage odour (beyond just equipment solutions)? Email me at trisha.aldovino@AzuraAssociates.com and we can discuss how to mitigate these risks for your project.

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Top 10 Things to Make Your Digester Biology Happy – AZURA

Top 10 Things to Make Your Digester Biology Happy – AZURA