It has been confirmed that vented gases from swine manure compositing operations contain biodegradable ammonia and amines as main odorous compounds. The thesis focuses on the odor-removal performance from the gases by sparging them into an activated sludge aeration liquor in which the odorous compounds can be absorbed and biodegraded. An acrylic column (0.20 m i.d.¡Ñ1.2 mH) was used as the activated sludge aeration tank and a wooden case (1.0 mL¡Ñ0.6 mW¡Ñ0.6 mH) as a swine manure compositing tank. Seed sludge for the odor removal experiments was obtained from a swinery wastewater plant located at southern Taiwan. Both swine manure from the swinery and a pre-fermented composite sample obtained from a compositing plant located at East-southern Ping-Dong County were used for the odorous gas generation. Experiments were conducted at mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) concentrations of 2,250-2,750 mg/L, liquid pH of 6.4-6.6, and aeration intensities of 0.1-0.5 m3/m3.min. Results show that the experimental removal efficiencies for both ammonia and amines with, respectively, 18-50 and 180-250 ppm in the influent gas were greater than 80% with aerated activated sludge liquid depths of greater than 0.60 m within the tested aeration intensities. Keeping the activated sludge at around 25oC favored the biodegradation of the absorbed ammonia and amines and resulted in the removal of the compounds to around 85-95%. Temperatures of lower than 15oC shifted the removal to as low as 50-60% because of the limitations in both the biological growth and activity. Results from the study confirm that the activated sludge bioscrubbing approach should be applicable to odor control for the compositing plants.

Biotreatment for air pollution control can generally be categorized as biofilter, bioscrubbing and biotrickling filter systems. Generally, biotreatments could be effective and more economical treatment for containment waste gas if designed and operated properly. A two stage down-flow biofilter (2.18 m in height and 0.4 m¡Ñ0.4 m in cross-sectional area) was constructed to develop a biofilter packed only with fern chips for the removal of air-borne propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA). Both stages were packed with fern chips of 0.30 m in height and 0.40 m ¡Ñ0.40 m in cross section. Fern chips could avoid the shortcomings of traditional media, such as compaction, drying, and breakdown, which lead to the performance failure of the biofilters. In addition, the fern chip medium has the following merits: (1) simplicity in composition, (2) low pressure drop for gas flow (< 20 mmH2O m-1), (3) simple in humidification, nutrient addition, pH control, and metabolite removal, (4) economical (USD$ 174 ¡V 385 m-3), and (5) low weight (wet basis around 290 kg m-3). Results indicate that with operation conditions of media moisture content controlled in the range of 50 ¡V 74%, media pH of 6.5 ¡V 8.3, EBRT (empty bed retention time) of 0.27 ¡V 0.4 min, influent PGMEA concentrations of 100 to 750 mg m-3, volumetric organic loading of < 170 g m-3 h-1, and nutrition rates of Urea-N 66.0 g m-3.day-1, KH2PO4-P 13.3 g m-3.day-1 and milk powder 1.0 g m-3 day-1, the fern-chip packed biofilter could achieve an overall PGMEA removal efficacy of around 94%. Instant milk powder or liquid milk was essential to the good and stable performance of the biofilter for PGMEA removal. An activated sludge aeration basin (20 cm i.d., 140 cm height) equipped with either a coarse air diffuser (a plastic pipe perforated with 56 orifices of 2 mm in diameter) or a fine diffuser (porous plastic type with 100-micrometer pores) was utilized to treat an air-borne hydrophobic VOC (toluene, 700 ¡V 800 mg m-3). The purposes of this study were to test the influences of both MLSS and diffuser type on the VOC removal efficiency. Results show that higher MLSS (mixed liquor suspended solids) such as 10,000 ¡V 40,000 mg L-1 in the mixed liquor did not enhance greatly the transfer and removal of the introduced toluene. Instead, activated sludge basins with a normal MLSS (e.g., 2,000 ¡V 4,000 mg L-1) in the mixed liquor and an efficient gas diffusion system with volumetric VOC transfer coefficient of around 10 ¡V 15 h-1 can be used for the removal of hydrophobic VOCs from the introduced gas. For achieving a removal of over 95% of the introduced toluene or similar hydrophobic VOCs, commercial air diffusers for aerobic biological wastewater treatment basins can be used with a submerged liquid depth of over 0.40 m over the diffusers and an aeration intensity (air flow rate/basin cross-sectional area) of lower than 5.0 m3 m-2 h-1.