Air

Platte River ‘s services include the conceptual design and engineering design of biofiltration systems to control volatile organic compounds.  Our experience includes developing conceptual biofilter designs, emission factors for permitting purposes, developing engineering design criteria and overseeing compliance testing to determine the emissions of VOC’s and other air pollutants from the full cycle of composting operations that include the biofilter systems.

Biofiltration is a relatively new type of air pollution control system that controls low concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and malodorous compounds from air emissions.  The biofilter’s media usually consists of organic material (e.g. wood chips, cellulose, etc.) where naturally occurring micro-organisms live in the thin layer of moisture or biofilm on the media.  The biofilter’s air pollution system works by drawing the contaminated air through the biofilter media where VOC’s are transferred from the air phase into the water phase of the biofilm.  Once in the water phase, the microorganisms use the VOC’s for metabolism and remove the compounds from the air stream.

The benefits for using biofiltration to remove low concentrations of VOC’s and malodorous air pollutants is:

• Low energy requirements for removing air pollutants
• Proven effectiveness at reducing odors
• Capital costs and Operation/Maintenance expenses are typically minimal compared to traditional air pollution controls
• Applicable for a variety of processes including wastewater, remediation, composting, sewage treatment, confined feedlots or other processes that require the economical treatment of VOC’s or malodorous air compounds.