Odor Control at a Science and Technology Museum

Odors after a restaurant started operating near the museum.. The museum’s air handling unit was bringing in fresh air from an outdoor intake located directly above the restaurant, allowing cooking and garbage odors to enter the building.

The museum contacted Hydrosil for help addressing the odor issue. The museum’s maintenance employee provided photographs of the existing air handling system, which showed that the unit was equipped with particulate filters but did not have filtration designed to address gaseous odors.

Hydrosil identified that there was enough space within the existing system to add a gas-phase filtration stage and provided a honeycomb filter filled with XB-17-P.

Industry Type: Museum 

Pollutants: Cooking and Garbage Odors, City Odors

Media Used: XB-17-P

The Challenge: Odors Entering Through the Fresh-Air Intake

The location of the museum’s outdoor air intake was contributing to the odor problem. Because the intake was positioned above the restaurant, cooking and garbage odors could be drawn into the air handling system along with the fresh air entering the building.

The existing particulate filters were not designed to address these gaseous odors. A gas-phase filtration stage was needed to target the odor-causing compounds entering through the ventilation system.

Adding Gas-Phase Filtration

After reviewing the photographs of the air handling unit, Hydrosil determined that there was sufficient space to incorporate a gas-phase filter into the existing system.

A honeycomb filter filled with XB-17-P was selected for the application. XB-17-P is a custom blended  air filtration media used for odor and gas-phase filtration applications. The blend utilizes activated carbon and an impregnated media to target these specific odors. The honeycomb filter provided a practical configuration for adding the media to the existing air handling unit without requiring a complete replacement of the current filtration system.

The addition of gas-phase filtration allowed the system to address a different type of contaminant than the existing particulate filters. Rather than replacing the existing filtration, the Hydrosil solution supplemented it with media specifically selected for odor control.

A Practical Odor Filtration Solution

This application demonstrates how identifying the source and entry point of an odor can help determine the appropriate filtration approach. In this case, odors generated around the restaurant were being pulled into the museum through the outdoor air intake.

By adding a gas-phase filtration stage with XB-17-P, the museum was able to supplement its existing particulate filtration with media specifically selected for odor control.

For museums, commercial buildings, restaurants, and other facilities experiencing persistent airborne odors, Hydrosil can help evaluate the existing air filtration system and identify an appropriate gas-phase filtration media solution.