Design and Implementation of an Efficient Odor Reduction Process for a Municipal Solid Waste Transfer Station

Municipal solid waste transfer stations generate substantial odorous emissions during waste collection and compression, posing threats to the surrounding environment and public health. Existing odor control technologies predominantly employ single-process configurations, ill-suited to the operational complexity of transfer stations. An efficient odor mitigation process was designed and implemented for a large-scale waste transfer station in Shanghai. The project established a combined system integrating source control and end-of-pipe treatment and verified its performance through full-scale actual operation. The results show that the odors are reduced effectively in situ by source control using a plant extract spray coupled with an ion oxidation fresh air system. At the end-of-pipe stage, a hybrid process combining a non-thermal plasma with a two-stage plant extract scrubber is employed to enhance the synergistic degradation of key odorants, including H2S and NH3. The monitoring results indicate that the post-renovation concentrations of H2S, NH3, and odor concentration in the unloading and transfer hall and at the emission stack remain well below the associated limits of the local Emission Standards for Odorous Pollutants (DB31/1025-2016). This study demonstrates that for waste transfer stations in environmentally sensitive residential areas, a systematic approach integrating source control and end-of-pipe treatment can achieve effective odor abatement performance, thereby improving the environmental quality of surrounding communities.