Problem Summary

Newsprint production processes produce many types of odors from many sources within the mill particuarly when using recycled fiber as the furnish.  Some of these malodorous compounds pose health risks in addition to degrading employee working conditions and community relations.  While technological process improvements can minimize odors, their elimination is seldom possible without chemical treatment.

Odors can impact operations in numerous ways:

Public complaints about odor can negatively affect public relations with the surrounding community.
Safety concerns can arise from people working in areas where odors can overcome them.
Equipment integrity can be threatened by the presence of many odors, which are corrosive in nature.
Production can be affected through the presence of odors and odor producing conditions that impact product quality.
Productivity decline can occur in areas of a facility where objectionable odors exist due to employee avoidance or neglect.

Recommended Solution

ProSweet™ Odor Control Technology is a family of products developed to prevent or neutralize a wide variety of odor types and odor causes from many mill areas.  Common sources of odor are non-condensable gas, foul condensate, black liquor storage tanks, waste lagoons, and waste sludge.  The odor-causing gases may be hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, or various volatile fatty acids (VFAs) that are the result of biological activity.  A variety of ProSweet products are available to treat the different requirements of the many sources of foul odors.

For treatment of odor in the water phase, ProSweet inhibitors will prevent the formation of hydrogen sulfide and VFAs from anaerobic systems, while ProSweet scavengers will neutralize sulfides that are present in process streams such as foul condensate.  As hydrogen sulfide is toxic, effective control is important for worker safety.  Hydrogen sulfide monitors can  be used to control ProSweet scavenger feed.  This ensures adequate scavenger is fed on an as needed basis to ensures worker safety.

Other ProSweet products are designed to manage odor over broad areas such as lagoons and waste clarifiers by neutralizing the odors in the gas phase.  These products neutralize the broad range of odor-causing compounds from these sources, including hydrogen sulfide and other biologically produced odors.  The vapor-phase technology is a cost-effective method to manage general mill odors.  This technology neutralizes various odors produced by the mill and offers the advantage of not having to collect or contain multiple sources of odor.

Key benefits typically associated with ProSweet™ Odor Control Technology include:

Reduction in health concerns related to hydrogen sulfide
Improved employee working conditions
Improved community relations and reduced odor complaints from neighbors
Improved equipment integrity

Hercules is the global, exclusive distributor for GE Water Technologies products. ProSweet is a GE Water Technologies trademark and is used under license.  This trademark may be registered in one or more countries.