Practical Management of Odour Emissions, Perceptions and Workload – a Case Study in AD : PRESENTATION ONLY
Thomas Minter, Director, Malaby Biogas, UK
(free)
Abstract
Odour has become one of the largest enforcement issues for the EA on AD plants. It takes up officers’ time dealing with odour complaints from neighbours. Evaluating the actual level at any receptor is transitory and complex with the real offensiveness level of odour in the environment being a highly subjective matter. Odour impact on people’s lives is often conflated with other issues such as seasonality, site operating conditions (vehicle movements, noise etc.), communications, perception & trust. In many cases community engagement and education are as great a tool to odour management as technology, filtering and treatment. Odour can be a reflection of other areas of discontent from complainants and taking a holistic view of odour at as early a stage in plant development as possible is essential to reduce its burden on a working AD plant and its position in the landscape.
Bore Hill Farm Biodigester is a food waste AD plant located 200m from the residential outskirts of Warminster, Wiltshire. It has been operating for 6 years under a bespoke environmental permit and has designed a simple, responsive and affordable odour management system which delivers real benefits to stakeholders. It acts as a model for responsive and robust odour prevention and treatment by permitting officers.
It is focussed around 3 delivery principles:
- Deliverability – robust design; practical to install; affordable;
- Adaptability – variable inputs; changing site conditions; variable treatment; add new point sources;
- Responsiveness – be a ‘good custodian’; frequent monitoring; speedy report response; feedback to adaptations; demonstrate assurance to stakeholders
The presentation is a ‘warts and all’ case study in preventing and managing odour issues and placing them in context.
