PRONTA Engineering

Line 02 · Odor & Gas Control

Once the odor leaves the plant, the problem stops being technical.

It becomes a matter of the community, the environmental authority, and your license to operate. We bring it back to the ground where it can be solved: measure the stream, understand where it really comes from, and choose the right technology using the numbers from your operation.

Engineer inspecting a gas line at an industrial plant

Independent comparison

6 technologies
evaluated
1 evidence-backed
decision

Removal efficiency, CAPEX, and OPEX for each alternative.

The problem

Not every odor has the same cause. Nor the same solution.

An odor from hydrogen sulfide is not treated the same way as one from ammonia or from organic compounds. When the technology is bought before the stream is characterized, the equipment ends up installed, running, and the complaint still unresolved — and the budget is gone. The sequence matters more than the catalog.

What we solve

Four fronts on the same stream.

From the point where the odor starts to the verification that the system delivered. You can contract one stretch or the whole chain.

Nuisance odor

Identifying the real source, characterizing the odorant compounds, modeling how far the odor travels, and designing the solution. With the evidence a proceeding before the environmental authority requires.

H₂SAmmoniaMercaptans CaptureDispersion modeling Colombian Resolution 1541 of 2013

Capture and ducting

Before you can treat it, you have to capture it. Design of hoods, enclosures, and ductwork to collect the stream at the source, before it dilutes across the whole plant and multiplies the airflow you have to treat.

Capture at the sourceEnclosure DuctworkAirflow balance

Gas treatment and scrubbing

Design, supply, and commissioning of treatment systems for loaded streams. It includes verifying that the system delivers the efficiency the design promised.

Gas scrubbingH₂S removal Process emissionsPerformance verification

Dust and emissions control

Capture and control of particulate matter at transfer points, milling, drying, and dispatch. Where dust is at once an environmental problem, a safety problem, and lost product.

Particulate matterTransfer points Capture at the source

How we do it

Seven steps, and the technology is chosen at the fifth.

That order is what separates an investment that solves the problem from one that only gets installed.

01

Source

Where the odor actually comes from. Almost never where it is assumed to.

02

Capture

How the stream is collected before it dilutes across the whole plant.

03

Characterization

Which compounds are present and at what concentration. Line 01 comes in here.

04

Modeling

How far it travels and who it reaches, with dispersion modeled.

05

Comparison

The viable alternatives, with the efficiency, CAPEX, and OPEX of each one.

06

Implementation

Design, supply, and installation with domestic and international partners.

07

Verification

We measure again with the system running and hand you the evidence.

The alternatives

Six technologies on the table, and the numbers from your plant deciding.

None is better than the others in the abstract. The one that works depends on your airflow, your load, its variability, the space you have, and what your team can operate.

Biofilter

Biological degradation of the pollutant in a filter medium. Low operating cost, but it needs floor area and a relatively steady load.

High airflows · biodegradable compounds

Activated carbon

Adsorption onto the medium. Very effective and quick to start up; the cost lives in replacing the carbon periodically.

Low loads · final polishing stage

Chemical scrubbing

Absorption of the pollutant into a reactive solution. It handles high and variable loads, in exchange for managing reagents and their waste.

H₂S and ammonia at high concentration

Oxidation

Destruction of the compound by chemical or thermal means. It handles what the biological route cannot reach, at a higher energy cost.

Compounds that are hard to degrade

Biological treatment

Puts microbial activity to work on steady streams. Simple to operate and low in cost when conditions hold.

Steady, biodegradable streams

Neutralization

Masks or neutralizes the perceived odor. It works as spot mitigation while the underlying problem is solved, not as a permanent fix.

Temporary mitigation · never the source

The regulation that applies in Colombia

Resolution 1541 of 2013 sets the permissible air quality levels for nuisance odor and the procedure for evaluating the activities that generate it, including a plan to reduce the impact. What that procedure demands is not intentions: it is measured concentrations and a verifiable plan.

What is usually missing
Characterization of the odorant compounds, dispersion modeling, and a plan with measurable targets.
What we deliver
That technical evidence, in a document your team can submit and defend.

How we work

The decision is yours. Our job is to make it an informed one.

We hand over the full comparison —efficiencies, mass balances, capital cost, and operating cost per alternative— so the choice rests on your own analysis and is not delegated to the equipment vendor.

  • Flow diagrams and mass balances for every alternative evaluated.
  • Verification that the regulatory limits are met in each scenario.
  • CAPEX and OPEX estimates that are comparable across technologies.
  • Supply, installation, and commissioning with domestic and international partners.
Gas treatment equipment room at an industrial plant

A case

Odor control technologies compared on independent criteria.

Elevation drawing of the odor control solution evaluated
Odor control · Industrial process

The challenge

Identify the critical odorant compounds in the process and define a technically and economically viable solution, with variable composition and airflow, space constraints, and environmental regulatory requirements as the limits.

Our solution

An assessment with sampling at strategic points, quantification of the key compounds, a comparative analysis of the applicable technologies with their removal efficiency and operating requirements, flow diagrams and mass balances per alternative, and a technical and economic evaluation with CAPEX and OPEX estimates.

The impact

The client chose knowing what each alternative costs in capital and in operation, and which one meets the regulation. The decision rested on their own analysis.

CAPEX
and OPEX

Estimated per alternative

Mass
balances

For every scenario evaluated

Regulation

Compliance verified in the design

No
bias

The client makes the decision

Contact

Tell us where the odor is coming from.

If you already have a complaint, a regulatory request, or a measurement on your desk, that is the best place to start. The first conversation costs nothing and ends with a read on the problem and a possible path forward.

pronta@epronta.com

Medellín, Antioquia · Colombia

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