Reverse Osmosis and Hydrogen Sulfide Odor

[Tom]

Hello,

We just installed a commercial reverse osmosis sytem for our employee breakroom to remove the sulfer odor that comes from our well. They installed 1 - 5 micron carbon filter prior to a 300 gallon per day unit. The odor was gone for a day, but then came back. After returning to inspect the installer said that the RO unit was not capable of removing all of the hydrogen sulfide, and they need to add a bigger carbon pre filter or a sulfer guard unit to remove the odor. I thought the RO unit was capable of removing almost everything including all of the sulfer odor. Is the installer right?

Tom

[Ron]

ROs can only remove dissolved salts. Hydrogen sulfide is a gas that's dissolved in the water, so the RO cannot remove it. I'm not sure if carbon is effective in removing hydrogen sulfide. Ron

[kevin]

Getting rid of the sulfer smell is somewhat tricky. Carbon will work a little, but it doesn't last long, and you have to change the filter a very very often. And it doesn't get rid of all the smell either.

Outgassing is probably the most complete solution. There are ways to do it -- along the lines of the 1000gal tank idea with a sprayer and a pump. But it is a bit more involved than just a naive hookup. You need float switches, pressure switches, pumps, an agitator to stir up the water and splash it around, an a mechanism to release the sulfer gas that builds up constantly, vented somewhere safe (and where the stink won't cause new problems). I'm sure they can be built custom, but you will need to read up on it.

Me -- I just found a different source for my drinking water.

-Kevin

[Andy Asberry]

If the water was stored in a vented storage tank, would the gas evaporate/percolate out? I read somewhere that spraying the water would help remove the gas.

I'm thinking pump the water into a 1000 or so gallon storage tank and have a pressure pump system draw from there.

[Tom]

We ended up adding a SulferGuard system by Kinetico. It has only been it for one day, but it seems to remove any trace of the odor. The sulferguard unit is feeding the cold line to the sink in addition to the RO system. It uses hydrogen peroxide as a reagent to remove the sulfer odor.