Odour pollution in the form of Hydrogen Sulfide was a major problem at the Sanford Waste Water Treatment Plant. The city administrators did not have data to identify and correlate with the complaints raised by nearby citizens. Oizom’s odour monitoring solution was deployed with real-time data visualization at the WWTP. Oizom’s partner Metersys were empowered to understand the concentration trends of H2S at different stages of the WWTP.

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) gas also known as a ‘sewer gas’ is a major pollutant at wastewater treatment plants. Even in low concentrations H2S has a pungent rotten egg odour and is a highly inflammable gas. It has adverse health effects on the workers and nearby citizens. The authorities of Sanford wastewater treatment plant face odour pollution due to H2S gas. The nearby residents often called the city administrators to complain about the smell. Without the sensing capability, the plant operator had to wait until they heard from unhappy residents, and then they would apply chemicals to treat the levels of the gas. As a result, it became necessary for the plant authorities to monitor and control the H2S gas in order to deliver higher quality services. With the sensing device from Oizom, the plant authorities can configure precise sensing levels and alerts when threshold levels are exceeded without having to go to the field to monitor or calibrate the sensors.

To understand the trends and changes in H2S gas, Metersys partnered with Oizom to deploy an H2S monitor at the wastewater treatment plant in North Carolina, USA. The concentration of H2S gas may vary in presence of other gases such as NH3, CH4, etc. Oizom offered a customized device that was able to measure the H2S gas concentration with great accuracy and precision. The device continuously monitored the H2S concentration at regular intervals and the real-time data was shared with the authorities through Oizom’s online data service portal. The data helped Metersys understand the concentration trends through different phases of the wastewater treatment process.

The data and trend analysis shared with Metersys provided them with useful insights to work on the design of an optimum H2S suppression system for the wastewater treatment plant. Moreover, the data was also used to monitor the gas concentration in case it exceeded the prescribed concentration limits.