Learning about new technologies in Italy

Our friendship with our Italian partner, Labiotest, seemed so long-standing that we had to search through old documents to find out when our cooperation actually began. Although the first contract is dated 2006, we know that we started importing the first machines much earlier.

Back then we were only experimenting, curious to see what results this process, which until then had seemed "magical" (and at the same time a little unbelievable), would deliver for odour complaints in Hungary.

It took more than 10 years for not only us but also the market to recognise that this by then fruitful cooperation really does deliver provable results in odour control.

Today we are no longer just a regional distributor for the Labiotest team. We develop our own solutions in Hungary for Hungarian problems. In agriculture and the food industry, we have successfully applied osmogenic barrier technology in settings where even our far more experienced partner had not done anything similar before. That is why Gruppo Luci, the group of companies that also owns Labiotest, invited the Telepszagtalanítás team to a training meeting not just as a sales partner but as a development partner.

This time we got to know another proven technology in greater depth. Labiotest developed the DK Fil product family for point sources of air pollution where not only odours cause problems, but the gases in the emitted air also exceed the legal limit values. The solution is based on chemical absorption, in which a special filter medium captures the contaminants in the ducted air. The medium consists not only of activated carbon but of several porous materials with a large surface area, combined individually based on the gas concentrations measured. This method can replace other technologies that are more difficult and costly to operate (e.g. biofilters).

After the theoretical training we headed out into the field, first to the Labiotest warehouse. There we first took a close look at a wet scrubber system made of polypropylene. This model was a unit built for test operation, so we were able to examine every part of it in detail: modular components, joints, water and chemical dosing system, and status sensors.

At three sites we were also able to see their systems in live operation:

• Hazardous waste sterilisation: another member company of Gruppo Luci helps with something truly special. They sterilise hazardous waste from medical practices, which makes further transport and storage of the waste much simpler. Before sterilisation, the waste in sealed boxes has to be shredded; the dust generated is extracted, and the air is filtered and treated in several stages.

• Wastewater treatment plant: one of the settling tanks at a municipal wastewater receiving station emits gases at particularly high concentrations. The tank has been covered, the air above the water surface is extracted in a controlled way, and the pollutants it contains are then captured.

• Brine recycling: one of the gastronomic specialities of a northern Italian province is a ham cured only with salt. After curing, the dry salt and the high-salinity wash water produced when cleaning the ham are taken to a special processing plant. During the multi-stage treatment of the wash water, various decomposition gases form in the headspace of the tanks; these are extracted and then captured by the filter medium of the air treatment unit.

During this exciting trip we could not stay quiet; we kept asking questions to learn as much as possible about the challenges of air purification.

Soon, through us, Hungarian customers will also have a new technological option to keep problematic gases from entering the atmosphere at excessive concentrations.