| 91. |
- Amiri, Kaveh
(författare)
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Experimental investigation of a Kaplan runner under steady-state and transient operations
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hydropower is a key part in electricity production nowadays. Hydropower electricity production rose to 3579.5 TWh in 2013, ranked as the second source of electricity production in the world after fossil fuels. It is the principle source of renewable electricity production, producing 16.2% of the electricity in 2013, accounting for 78% of the renewable electricity production in the world. Specifically in Sweden, hydropower is the main source of electricity production producing 47.5% of the required electricity. Nuclear, biomass, and wind placed in the following positions in the ranking in 2013 with 38.4%, 6.5%, and 4.3%, respectively.Besides meeting electricity demand with an environmental-friendly method, hydropower has a unique and important role which is grid regulation: balancing electricity production and consumption. Gas turbines and hydraulic turbines called “Primary reserves” are the only electricity production systems that can be used for fast regulations due to their short start-up time from 1 to 60 s. The obvious environmental problems, air pollution, and costs associated with gas turbines make hydropower a prime alternative whenever applicable. In Sweden, the share of fossil fuels in electricity production is small; 2.8% in 2012 with an average annual growth of -0.7% in the period 2002-2012. Hence, hydropower is practically the only available source used to regulate the grid fluctuations resulting from deregulated market and fast growth of intermittent power generation systems, i.e., solar and wind energy. Hydraulic turbines are subject to frequent off-design and transient operations because of their grid regulation responsibility. Such operating conditions decrease turbine’s efficiency and affect its lifetime significantly. Off-design and transient operation of hydraulic turbines may induce unpredicted pressure fluctuations on the stationary and rotating parts of the turbine. Special attention should be dedicated to the effects of such phenomena on the runner blades because of their importance on the efficiency of the turbine, and their vulnerability to the pressure fluctuations.This thesis presents an experimental investigation on the effects of off-design and transient operation of an axial hydraulic turbine on velocity fields and pressure fluctuations exerted on the runner and the draft tube of a turbine. The investigation was performed on a 1:3.1 scaled model of a Kaplan turbine known as Porjus U9. The main objective was to investigate the effect of operating point on pressure and velocity fluctuations in the runner and the draft tube. Another objective was to study the effect of transient operation on pressure fluctuations exerted on the runner and the draft tube, to investigate the formation and mitigation process of a rotating vortex rope (RVR) within the draft tube. Finally, the effect of the swirl leaving the runner and the draft tube bend on the performance of the turbine was investigated. The study involves pressure measurements on the runner blades and draft tube walls of the turbine, laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) measurements within and after the runner, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements within the draft tube.The pressure and LDA results acquired during steady state operation of the turbine showed different sources of fluctuations on the runner at different operating points resulting in symmetric and asymmetric fluctuating forces on the runner. The pressure measurements during transient operating conditions exhibited pressure fluctuations exerted on the runner during load variations and elucidated some aspects of formation and mitigation process of RVR within the draft tube. The PIV measurements performed after the draft tube bend of the turbine focuses on the physical phenomena resulting in flow asymmetry after the draft tube bend of hydraulic turbines affecting their efficiency.
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| 92. |
- Amofah, Lea Rastas
(författare)
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Towards sustainability of environmental protection : recovery of nutrients from wastewater filtration and the washing of arsenic contaminated soils
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Conventional methods for wastewater treatment and remediation of the sites withcontaminated soils focus on protection of human health, receiving waters and theenvironment. Towards this end, these methods concentrate on the reduction or removal of polluting substances, and therefore, are not well suited for creating resources through the recovery of nutrients, energy and decontaminated soils. Hence, a new, more sustainable approach is promoted in this thesis and, besides meeting the protection requirements, takes into consideration the resources that can be recovered from the treatment processes, keeping in mind the energy use during such a recovery. To achieve this goal, a better knowledge of wastewater and contaminated soil treatment approaches needs to be developed, from a resource recovery perspective.In this thesis project, laboratory, pilot-scale and full-scale investigations were conducted to study phosphorus (P) sorption in blast furnace slag (BF slag) filters. Further, ammonium adsorption by, and desorption from, clinoptilolite was studied in laboratory columns. A full-scale wastewater treatment system, comprising a willow bed followed by two parallel P–filters with BF slag and Filtralite® P media was examined for the wastewater treatment efficiency, nutrient accumulation in willow biomass, and biomass production. In a similar way, laboratory, pilot-scale and full-scale investigations were conducted to examine arsenic (As) removal from As contaminated soils using physical separation and chemical extraction. Finally, the decontamination of the extraction effluents (contaminated by As) was studied by adjusting pH and adding a coagulant, iron chloride.Pollutant mobilisation and immobilisation were affected by pH, the organic mattercontent, redox potential, time (process duration) and temperature. Results showed that pollutants in the studied media have complex characteristics in terms of charge of species and redox speciation, and therefore, no general conclusions addressing all the conditions studied could be given. The P sorption capacity of BF slag was reduced by outdoor storage and weathering, and the content of organic substances in sewage seemed to have a more negative impact on the sorption process when using weathered BF slag. Arsenic mobilisation from As contaminated soils was affected by pH, the content of organic substances, and redox potential and the nature of these effects depended on the polluting chemicals (i.e. wood preservatives) and the content of calcium in the soil. Extractions at elevated temperatures facilitated high As mobilisation from the contaminated soils for short contact times, assuming that the extraction solution features vital for As mobilisation were not altered, and the fastest As mobilisation was achieved by using an acid oxalate citrate solution rather than reductive or alkaline extraction solutions at room temperatures.In the full-scale treatment system, the willow bed efficiently reduced the content of total suspended solids and biodegradable organic matter in the influent wastewater and prevented the clogging of downstream phosphorus filters during the one year of operation. The Filtralite® P treatment train simultaneously removed over 90 and 70% of BOD and P, respectively, during the experimental period, and therefore, fulfilled the requirements for the low protection level over the period of one year, except for tot-P excesses during the snowmelt period. In the case of tot-N reduction (50%), the high protection level was achieved. On the other hand, the treatment system with BF slag did not fulfil requirements for either low or high protection level, because the coarse-grained BF slag was inefficient in retaining P and the concentrations of oxygen consuming compounds were elevated downstream of the filter.The studied methods for recovering resources through treatment of wastewater and contaminated soils demonstrated a potential for improving environmental sustainability of these processes. Even though the willow bed did not accumulate nutrients from the fed wastewater to a high degree, it facilitated nutrient recovery in other treatment steps located downstream. Fresh, fine-grained BF slag showed capacity to recover P from wastewater, which was comparable to that of other efficient P sorbents. The BF slag material released high amounts of sulphuric compounds during the initial loading phase which consequently increased the concentration of oxygen consuming compounds in the filter effluent. Thus, the use of BF slag for P retention is not recommended when the effluent is discharged to sensitive receiving waters. Natural clinoptilolite studied showed a high capacity for adsorbing ammonium from the pre-treated wastewater, at low operating temperatures. Hence, the clinoptilolite filter has a potential to enhance N retention during the plant dormancy or prior to the maturity of willow beds when N retention is needed. However, the recovery of ammonium was limited by the inefficient desorption process using tap water without recycling the eluate. Fertigated willows grew nearly as well as in the south of Sweden, but in the highly loaded horizontal flow willow bed, the potential to produce biofuel was limited. To recover nutrients, willow clones with lateral growth are preferable. 90% of nutrients accumulated in the above-ground parts of willows could be recovered from the experimental site operated over three growing seasons, particularly when using dense planting and annual harvesting prior to leaf fall.Soil treatment, comprising the exclusion of the fine soil fraction prior to the chemical extraction with strong extraction agents applied at an elevated temperature, was efficient in decontaminating soils, even for short contact times. However, this treatment procedure results in an incomplete soil recovery (i.e. the recovered mass of soil after decontamination is appreciably smaller than the soil mass prior to decontamination), consumes a high amount of energy and lowers the soil quality, which limits the potential end-use of the decontaminated soil. The alkaline extraction effluents could be decontaminated at a pH of 4-5 with the addition of a coagulant. Also, the treatment of alkaline extraction effluents was facilitated by the exclusion of the fine soil fraction from the chemical extraction step. The use of acid oxalate-citrate extraction solution was judged infeasible because the decontamination of such extraction solution is complicated due to the high pH buffering and complexing capacity of the solution.
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| 93. |
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| 94. |
- Anandika, Rayendra, 1988-
(författare)
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Non-destructive measurement of near-surface cracks in railheads : with focus on ultrasonic inspections
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Near-surface cracks in railhead that caused by rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is one of a kind rail defects that degrade rail track quality. Dependent on the trail load, the cracks can reach to severe level quickly. From many studies, the crack growth can be summarized as follows: At the first phase, the crack is initiated at the rail surface due to shear stresses created by the interaction between wheel and rail. The crack then propagates at about 30⁰ angle underneath. After a certain period of transition, the cracks starts propagating horizontally, vertically, or branching. If they propagates horizontally, the cracks potentially cause rail spalling. If they propagates vertically, then the cracks become more severe and dangerous.To overcome such defects, the infrastructure manager remove the top of railhead by performing rail grinding periodically. Prior the grinding, rail tracks need to be inspected to figure out how deep the cracks are by performing non-destructive testing (NDT). Eddy current testing (ECT) is one of the common method to estimate rail surface crack depths. Most of the practices in the industry, ECT estimates only the crack depth, without analyzing any other crack parameters, such as crack angle propagation, crack length, crack area, crack branches, etc. It also has no ability to identify multi-leveled cracks, sub surface cracks, dense cracks etc. Since depth is the only crack parameter that can be provided from ECT, the inspector have no knowledge about how severe the surface crack is. Whereas, information of crack phase, that is known from the crack profile (crack angle, crack depth and crack length) is beneficial to determine whether the crack is in initial or severe level. It also helps to decide the right time for grinding and avoid severe cracks remain long in the rails.Motivated by the benefit of knowing crack parameters, in this study, phased array ultrasonic transducer (PAUT) was used to inspect rail surface cracks. Generally, ultrasonic testing is used to inspect defect of rails at the far-field of the surface, such as at the body or bottom of the rails. Ultrasonic testing is not used to inspect near-surface cracks since the existence of dead zone at the few mm front of the transducer that is caused by piezoelectric crystal ringing inside the transducer. In this study, by utilizing wedge, phased array technique, and setting the optimum gain at the calibration process could decrease the existence of the dead zone. Thus the surface cracks can be observed clearly from the breaking surface to the deepest tip. At the measurement result, crack profile (propagation angle, depth and length), crack branches and multi-level cracks could be observed well. To verify the measurement result, the inspected railheads were sliced into pieces with uniform 0.65-mm thickness. From these pieces, 3D cracks networks were reconstructed. Complete information of crack profiles (angle, depth and length) of all cracks under the inspected surfaces were collected and well presented. From the reconstructed crack images, crack tips, multi-level cracks, and crack branches can be seen. These confirms that the measurement results could be used to observe crack profile well. For a brief description about the results, 3.5 mm crack tip depth and 6 mm crack length were estimated well with 8% and 4% error, respectively. Although the measurement system still have lack of detection for crack path that oriented sharply from the horizontal line parallel to the surface, since the ultrasonic waves could not be reflected back by these paths.At the end of this study, assessment about the potential of measurement speed of the used system when be applied to the rail field inspection was presented. The study is based on the state of the art available at this topic. The discussion is provided in order to motivate the application of the system to be chosen by the rail inspector to use it for the real rail field inspection.
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| 95. |
- Anders, Viking
(författare)
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Institutional complexity in Swedish built environment regulation : exploring the interface with industrialized house-building
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The industrialized house-building movement has emerged as aresponse to recurring criticism of the construction sector. It seeks toemulate management practices prevalent in manufacturing industries,including the use of standardized work processes and building systems.This approach does, however, make industrialized house-buildingcontractors susceptible to unpredictable variations. Swedish localplanning authorities have a legal and democratic mandate to regulatethe built environment within its borders and views variations betweendifferent municipalities as a desirable consequence of a functional localdemocratic system. Meanwhile, industrialized house-buildingcontractors have highlighted variations in regulation of the builtenvironment as obstructive to their intended methods of managing thebuilding process. The aim of this thesis is to increase understanding ofhow local planning authorities make interpretations when regulatingthe built environment and how those interpretations influenceindustrialized house-building contractors and to, within the ongoingresearch process, identify theoretical perspectives suitable for describingtensions in the interface between industrialized house-building andlocal planning authorities. The theoretical frame of reference for thisthesis consists of two major streams of organizational literature:organizational coordination, operationalized though the concept ofcoordination mechanisms, and neo-institutional theory, operationalizedthrough institutional logics and institutional complexity. Theoverarching research strategy is best described as a case study approachinvestigating cases of institutional complexity in regulation of theSwedish built environment. The design consists of one multi-casestudy relying on interviews with representatives of industrializedhouse-building contractors and local planning authorities and onesingle-case study investigating a longitudinal land development processusing a combination of interviews, direct observations and documentanalysis. Findings indicate that local planning authorities faceinstitutional complexity stemming from three semi-compatibleinstitutional logics that each prescribe different roles for planningpractitioners and expectations for their behaviour. As some planningpractitioners are more attuned to particular logics than others, it is difficult to predict, for each given situation, which logic will beactivated. Furthermore, findings indicate that institutional logics can beviewed as coordination mechanisms, thereby highlighting afundamental tension between the coordination preferences ofindustrialized house-building contractors and local planning authorities.This tension causes a lack of accountability, predictability and commonunderstanding resulting in an inability for industrialized house-buildingcontractors and local planning authorities to coordinate theircontributions in the planning and building process. The findings implythat industrialized house-building contractors and local planningauthorities should attempt to acknowledge each other’s participation inand contributions to the planning and building process. The findingsalso highlight the importance of interpretations for regulation of thebuilt environment, which implies that not all sector-wide problems canor need be solved through legislative action.
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| 96. |
- Andersson, Annika
(författare)
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Frazil ice at water intakes
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To provide a better understanding of how frazil ice deposits on trash racks at water intakes, the phenomenon was video recorded at two hydropower plants and in a refrigerated laboratory flume. Initial accretion of frazil ice around a single bar and the motion of particles in the vicinity of an obstacle was simulated through numerical modelling and studied using plastic particles in a laboratory flume. Ice initially accumulates on the upstream face of the bars, and it progresses then to the upstream sides of the bars. Tha frazil ice layer grows in all directions, and it finally bridges over the spaces between bars. The ice blockage starts at the upper part of the rack and progresses downward. The head losses across each intake, which are observed continuously at the plants, illustrate the degree and importance of ice growth. Observations from laboratory experiments with a single bar in a flume, showed that frazil ice particles deposited on all bar surfaces. Separate flume tests were run with plastic particles simulating ice particles. The frequency of collision of these particles with the front face of a rectangular bar varied with the particle density and the fluid velocity. In a test with particles of various sizes, the smaller particles were more likely to enter the side wake than larger ones. A mathematical model can be used to predict patterns of ice deposition that correspond to the observed results. Such a model must include a hydrodynamic part for viscous flows and a particle trajectory model. Some models neglect the term for force due to pressure gradient in their calculations of a particle trajectory because the particles had larger density than the surrounding fluid. Ice particles have almost the same density as the water and simulated results showed that this term, caused by the pressure gradient, is the dominant force that counter the momentum of the particles when they move in the region close to the obstacle. The simulated results were affected by the particle size distribution, therefore the size distribution of frazil ice particles in a river is a factor in further studies. In tests in which no particles were allowed to deposit on the front part of the bar, in a simulation of a heated bar, lesser amounts deposited on the other parts of the bar. Knowledge of the way frazil ice accumulates on water intakes and the initial ice accretion on individual trash racks should be valuable in future work for finding methods to reduce the ice blockage and in the verification of more detailed model studies.
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| 97. |
- Andersson, Anders G.
(författare)
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Modelling flow with free and rough surfaces in the vicinity of hydropower plants
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Flow with free and rough surfaces near hydropower stations is of interest for both engineering and environmental applications. Here, Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations of free surface flow and flow over rough surfaces in regulated rivers were performed in applications such fish migration, spillway design and flow over rough surfaces as in hydropower tunnels or natural channels. For all the investigated applications it is typical with very large geometrical scales, high flow rates and highly turbulent flow. Modelling boundaries such as free water surfaces and rough walls presents a challenge and was given special attention as well as the treatment of turbulence. Validation of the numerical simulations was performed in all cases with methods such as acoustic measurements with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) and optical measurements with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV).Numerical simulations have been used to evaluate the flow downstream the Stornorrfors hydropower plant in Umeälven with regards to upstream migrating fish. Field measurements with an ADCP were performed and the measurements were used to validate the simulations. By adding a fish ladder in the simulations it was possible to investigate the attraction water created from the fishway at different positions and angles. An additional possibility to create better attraction water and improve the conditions for upstream migrating fish was simulated by guiding the spill water from the hydropower dam through a smaller passage from the old river bed.Fish population data from the same location was compared with flow fields from numerical simulations. The population data was compared with variables such as velocity, vorticity and turbulence intensity. A correlation between fish detections and turbulence intensity was shown.Simulations on the spilling from a dam were performed and compared to experimental results from a physical scale model. ADV was used to measure the velocity and validate the simulations. Two different spillway configurations were considered and simulations with both the Rigid Lid model and the Volume of Fluids method were carried out. Water levels, velocities and the shape of the water surface were compared between simulations and experiments. The simulations capture both qualitative features such as a vortex near the outlet and show good quantitative agreement with the experiments.A wall with large surface roughness was created by laser scanning a tunnel. One of the side walls was down-scaled and used to create a rough wall in a channel with rectangular cross-section for both a numerical model and an experimental model. Numerical simulations were performed and validated by PIV-measurements in the experimental model.The resolution of the geometry for the rough surface was lowered in two steps and numerical simulations were performed for flow over all three surfaces. The difference in flow fields in the bulk and near wall region was investigated as well as the difference in turbulent quantities which can provide good input for a new model for surface roughness in applications with very large surface roughness and high velocities such as flow in hydropower tunnels or natural channels and rivers.
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| 98. |
- Andersson, Christian
(författare)
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Biobased production of succinic acid by Escherichia coli fermentation
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The prospects of peak oil, climate change and the dependency of fossil carbon have urged research and development of production methods for the manufacture of fuels and chemicals from renewable resources (biomass). The present thesis illustrates different aspects of biobased succinic acid production by a metabolically engineered E. coli strain. The main areas of the thesis are sugar utilisation and feedstock flexibility, and fermentation inhibition, both due to toxic compound derived from the raw material and the fermentation products themselves.The first part of this thesis aimed to investigate the fermentation characteristics of AFP184 in a medium consisting of corn steep liquor, inorganic salts and different sugar sources without supplementation with high-cost nutrients such as yeast extract and peptone. The effects of different sugars, sucrose, glucose, fructose, xylose, equal mixtures of glucose-fructose and glucose-xylose, on succinic acid production kinetics and yields in an industrially relevant medium were investigated. AFP184 was able to utilise all sugars and sugar combinations except sucrose for biomass generation and succinate production. Using glucose resulted in the highest yield, 0.83 (g succinic acid per g sugar consumed anaerobically). Using a high initial sugar concentration resulted in volumetric productivities of almost 3 g L-1 h-1, which is above estimated values for economically feasible production. However, succinic acid production ceased at final concentrations greater than 40 g L-1. To further increase succinic acid concentrations, fermentations using NH4OH, NaOH, KOH, K2CO3, and Na2CO3 as neutralising agents were performed and compared. It was shown that substantial improvements could be made by using alkali bases to neutralise the fermentations. The highest concentrations and productivities were achieved when Na2CO3 was used, 77 g L-1 and 3 g L-1 h-1 respectively. A gradual decrease in succinate productivity was observed during the fermentations, which was shown to be due to succinate accumulation in the broth and not as a result of the addition of neutralising agent or the subsequent increase in osmolarity.To maintain high succinate productivity by keeping a low extracellular succinic acid concentration fermentations were interrupted and cells recovered and resuspended in fresh media. By removing the succinate it was possible to maintain high succinic acid productivity for a prolonged time. Cells subjected to high concentrations of succinate were also able to regain high productivity once transferred into a succinate-free medium.In the last part of the thesis succinic acid production from softwood dilute acid hydrolysates was demonstrated. This study involved establishing the degree of detoxification necessary for growth and fermentation using industrial hydrolysates. Detoxification by treatment with lime and/or activated carbon was investigated and the results show that it was possible to produce succinate from softwood hydrolysates in yields comparable to those for synthetic sugars.The work done in this thesis increases the understanding of succinic acid production with AFP184, illustrate its limitations, and suggests improvements in the current technology with the long term aim of increasing the economical feasibility of biochemical succinic acid production.
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| 99. |
- Andersson, Charlotte
(författare)
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Factors affecting MFI membrane quality
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates with molecular sieving properties and are widely used in industrial applications such as catalysis, sorption and ion-exchange. Zeolite membranes are highly interesting due to their capability to continuously separate molecules under severe conditions. The MFI zeolite structure has suitable pore diameter for many applications, and its thermal and chemical stability is high. In order to obtain high performance MFI membranes, a thin and defect free film is needed for high flux and high selectivity. In this thesis, parameters affecting quality of zeolite membranes have been investigated. Different MFI-zeolite membranes were prepared using seed crystals and hydrothermal synthesis. Thereafter, membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, single gas permeation measurements, porosimetry and separation experiments. The effect of grain boundaries was investigated by preparing membranes with small crystal size. It was found that a high amount of grain boundaries reduced the quality of the membranes. In another study, the effect of exposure to aqueous solutions was found to increase the amount of non-zeolitic pores in the membrane, and thus it decreased the quality of the membrane. However, no such effect was found for ethanol that was identified as a safe rinsing media. Membranes with different Si/Al ratio were also prepared and evaluated. It was observed that the Si/Al ratio of a MFI membrane influences the performance of the membrane. It was found that an increase of aluminium makes the membrane more polar which leads to an improved adsorption of, and selectivity for polar molecules. The effect of support invasion was also evaluated and the regularity and extension of the support invasion was observed to affect membrane quality. The effect of heating rate during calcination was investigated and no correlation between heating rate and membrane quality was observed. Calcination of membranes was studied in-situ by high temperature synchrotron radiation and a model for crack formation was postulated. In summary, this work has shown that in order to obtain high quality membranes, the amount of grain boundaries, the film thickness and support invasion should be controlled. To obtain the best performance of the membranes the Si/Al ratio should be chosen with respect to the application. Finally, water exposure affects the lifetime of the MFI membranes in certain applications.
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| 100. |
- Andersson-Chan, Anneli
(författare)
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Biofiltration of odorous gas emissions
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biofiltration has shown its potential as an interesting treatment alternative for contaminated gas streams. Unlike conventional technologies, such as adsorption, scrubbers, and incineration, biofiltration offers effective pollution control at relatively low capital and operating costs, and without the generation of secondary pollution that may require subsequent treatment. The disadvantages of biofiltration have been the large space requirements and frequent media replacements as a result of deterioration or ageing. Extensive biofilter research and development have taken place over the past 20 years internationally, in particular laboratory experiments that address the removal of single pollutants at fairly high concentrations under constant operating conditions. In field applications, such conditions are highly unusual and the feasibility of treating complex mixtures at very low concentrations relevant to many odorous gas emissions has not received much attention. The overall objective of this thesis was to reduce the knowledge gap between laboratory studies and field conditions on the topic of biofiltration for odorous gas emissions. Various operational and process related problems, such as fluctuating flows, temperatures, and pollutant concentrations, that affected the biofilter performance by creating suboptimal living conditions for the microbes were identified. A newly designed compact pilot-scale biofilter was used in three different applications with odour problems, namely restaurant, pulp mill and wastewater pumping station. The gas streams were complex mixtures with chemically diverse contaminants whose concentrations varied significantly with time. Aldehydes were the dominant compounds in restaurant emissions, while reduced sulphur compounds, primarily dimethyl sulphide, dominated the pulp mill and wastewater emissions. Overall, very low concentrations of individual compounds were found (ppb-level), and very low or no removal of the targeted compounds was achieved in the biofilter. Limitations of the biomass density in the filter media is a plausible explanation since pollutant concentrations at the ppb-level may have been too low to build up and support the bacteria. Due to the low solubility of many identified compounds, a mass transfer limitation may also have occurred due to the prevailing short residence times. Drying of the filter medium was partly a problem, pointing to the need for an improved humidification system or using a trickling filter design. In a case study at a wastewater treatment plant, a method to evaluate odour problems was developed involving local observers in an odour panel together with operational data and weather observations. Working with an odour panel proved useful in several ways; they took an active interest in and increased their knowledge of the complexity of odour problems. However, relating the panel reports to specific events at the treatment plant proved difficult, and the reports were not always consistent with current wind directions.
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