Odour Control at a Sewage Treatment Plant: Treat the Problem, Not Just the Air

Odour from sewage treatment plants (STPs) is one of the biggest sources of community complaints for water utilities. Traditional odour control focuses on the air: extraction fans, biofilters, chemical scrubbers and masking agents. They can work, but they treat the air after the odour has already been created.

A different approach: treat the source

ProPower Commercial takes a biological approach. Instead of cleaning the air, it changes the environment that produces the odour. Its proprietary blend of probiotic microbes uses Quorum Sensing Technology to quickly dominate the wastewater or sludge, out-compete odour-producing bacteria and digest the organic material they feed on.

Case study: Logan STP drying beds

In 2019, Logan Council’s sewage treatment plant in Queensland was cleaning out its digesters into two drying beds, each around 1,400 m². The sludge was severely malodorous, and complaints were coming from several kilometres away. ProPower was brought in on an emergency basis through Odour Technologies, with no payment required unless the trial was successful.

Method: 25 litres of ProPower Commercial Deodoriser was diluted 1:10 and sprayed over an estimated 1400 square cubic metres of sludge, using the wind to help coverage.
Next morning: an estimated odour reduction of more than 80% was reported in the supplied case-study account; confirm the original report and measurement method before publication.
14 days later: there was no noticeable odour, from a single application.
Additional observation: an estimated 25–35% reduction in sludge volume was reported; verify the source and assessment method before publication.