Industrial odor control is a key determinant of a safe and healthy workplace and an indicator of the quality of your facility operations. In some industries, odors are a natural and important part of the business – examples here could include composting, cannabis cultivation, industrial food production, or wastewater treatment. In others, odors may arise as a result of equipment malfunction, incorrect batch ingredients, or other operational issues.
In each case, the odor has a direct impact on the products you distribute, the services your facility provides, and the way your staff and customers interact with your workplace. Odor is not always the first thing that comes to mind when industrial air purification is considered – often, issues like visibility, inhalation, and related safety concerns are top of mind. However, after consideration, it is clear that industrial odor control is necessary to maintain a safe and successful business. Therefore, attention should be paid to understanding your odor challenges and translating them to industrial odor control solutions.
Causes of Odor Issues
Odors are caused by volatilized chemical compounds traveling through the air. Typically, more volatile compounds have stronger bad smells. We smell odors when particles enter our nose, which usually occurs when odor molecules freely move through the air via diffusion (random movement in all directions, with a net flow from high concentration source areas to low concentration receiving areas). Sources of odor molecules may include cleaners, building materials, and aerosols. These particles tend to be incredibly small.
Odor control has been a source of some debate with 2020’s need to manage the COVID pandemic – some of the basic COVID control measures like masks do not mitigate odor – this is because odor particles are much smaller than those that cause COVID! Therefore, filtering the odor molecules that cause odor must be scaled to the causes of the odors themselves. Aeroex has a strong foundation in the science of odor causes and controls and has created an industrial odor control system (odor eliminator) matched to eliminate odors
Eliminate odors with our industrial Odor Control Solutions
The IRIS Series Medical Grade Air Filtration System optimizes indoor air quality, providing clean air by capturing the particles that cause odors, allergies, and other undesirable airborne contaminants like aerosols, particulate matter, microorganisms, and the previous discussed volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It accomplishes this through a highly engineered solution, recognizing that the particles that cause odor tend to be incredibly small (discussed above). Therefore, the filtration technique used needs to be small enough to eliminate those particles.
Our industrial odor control solution uses two progressive, powerful filters for removing odors. The first filter in the IRIS series is made of activated carbon, and as our primary filter, it has a MERV 8 rating (it will be followed by an even stronger filter in the second stage). Carbon fiber is an excellent odor eliminator because of its distinct ability to adsorb the particles it interacts with, chemically reacting and sticking to the filter. This is an important technique for odor control because it targets the root causes of odors rather than the odor itself. MERV 8 filters are excellent at targeting particles in the range of 3 to 10 micrometers – particles in this range typically include mold spores, dust, and cleaners – also known as the particles that commonly cause industrial odors!
The second stage filtration in the IRIS commercial odor eliminator machine is a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter with a 99.97% removal efficiency for particles with a size of 0.3 microns. This is the highest standard for air filtration systems and is referenced by guidance documents from leading organizations like the CDC. By removing larger particles first with the MERV 8 filter, the HEPA filter is then able to target the smallest particles that cause industrial odor.
To eliminate industrial odors you need an odor eliminator that efficiently filters the smallest particles, and the Aeroex commercial odor eliminator machine can do this at scale. Aeroex provides a range of models that are portable or can be centrally mounted, allowing you to employ source control solutions that are targeted odors nearby or ambient solutions that integrate into an existing HVAC system. The size of the unit will depend on the volume of your facility. Additional consideration could be given to how frequently you wish to cycle the air. Larger odor eliminators are often used where industrial odors are commonly associated with the workplace and occur throughout the building, such as a waste collection facility. Aeroex staff will advise on what unit is most efficient for you based on your operational context, but as a starting point check out our air purification requirements calculator for the IRIS system.
Trap odor molecules and Secure Your Workplace
Industrial odor control is an important issue, but the 2020-2021 pandemic has taught us that there are many other reasons to be concerned about indoor air quality in workplaces and public spaces. While industrial odor eliminators do not supplement government or public health guidelines, the medical grade status of the IRIS system means that it will minimize the presence of airborne infectious diseases, including COVID-19. The IRIS system is popular among public workspaces and institutions, including education, medical, government, and commercial buildings. Aeroex is proud to be able to support the efforts to fight COVID-19, with hundreds of our units being deployed in school boards, colleges, and universities across Ontario.
Evident from the discussion of the health benefits of medical-grade air purification is that there are many reasons to adopt an industrial odor control solution. As our awareness of workplace safety increases, so too does the need for air purification systems that attack the root causes of odors by filtering out the smartest particles. Aeroex achieves this while delivering a level of efficiency that helps to make an IRIS system a sound investment – our primary filters last 6 months and our HEPA filters last 3 years. The progressive filtration stages not only provide contaminant removal performance but also minimize the frequency by which you have to replace your HEPA filter. To learn more about industrial Odor control solutions, contact our team today.
