Aeration systems for hydrogen sulphide in borehole water

[LesleyK]

Cutting a long story short, the hydrogen sulphide gas in our water is coming from deep underground.  It seems the best way to get rid of the smell is to aerate the water, ideally at the borehole pump.  I'm looking for solutions/suggestions for this.  Particularly I can't seem to find any prices!  Also, is there a system we can use inside the house (would have to be small) to eliminate the smell.  Any advice would be welcome.  Thanks

[JohnMo]

It's good you can smell it, means the parts per million is still quite low.  As ppm increases your nose cannot detect it, but the concentration is at a level where quite short/medium exposure can kill you or do you no good what so ever.

 

Even after dilution it may have a smell.

 

 

Concentration (ppm)	Symptoms/Effects
0.00011-0.00033	Typical background concentrations
0.01-1.5	Odor threshold (when rotten egg smell is first noticeable to some). Odor becomes more offensive at 3-5 ppm. Above 30 ppm, odor described as sweet or sickeningly sweet.
2-5	Prolonged exposure may cause nausea, tearing of the eyes, headaches or loss of sleep. Airway problems (bronchial constriction) in some asthma patients.
20	Possible fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, irritability, poor memory, dizziness.
50-100	Slight conjunctivitis ("gas eye") and respiratory tract irritation after 1 hour. May cause digestive upset and loss of appetite.
100	Coughing, eye irritation, loss of smell after 2-15 minutes (olfactory fatigue). Altered breathing, drowsiness after 15-30 minutes. Throat irritation after 1 hour. Gradual increase in severity of symptoms over several hours. Death may occur after 48 hours.
100-150	Loss of smell (olfactory fatigue or paralysis).
200-300	Marked conjunctivitis and respiratory tract irritation after 1 hour. Pulmonary edema may occur from prolonged exposure.
500-700	Staggering, collapse in 5 minutes. Serious damage to the eyes in 30 minutes. Death after 30-60 minutes.
700-1000	Rapid unconsciousness, "knockdown" or immediate collapse within 1 to 2 breaths, breathing stops, death within minutes.
1000-2000	Nearly instant death

[Tom]

Our borehole water went all horrid a year or so ago after years of being fine, lots of iron and sulphur dioxide. Got one of these bad boys and all good: https://www.gapswater.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Filox__Iron._Manganese_and_Hydrogen_Sulphide_removal__Systems.html

[LesleyK]

Thanks for your input(s).  We are looking at just aerating without the Filox bit, as there is already filtration for iron, manganese and hard water at the pump head.  Carbon filters have also been suggested but they are hellishly expensive and only last a couple of years.  Still trying to get more info on just aeration as it seems that adding oxygen to the water and getting it to bubble can make the hydrogen sulphide bubble away too.

[SteamyTea]

12 hours ago, LesleyK said:

We are looking at just aerating without the Filox bit

Can you inject ozone into it.

Oxidisation will sort it quite quickly.

[jack]

On 07/12/2022 at 17:24, LesleyK said:

Cutting a long story short, the hydrogen sulphide gas in our water is coming from deep underground.  It seems the best way to get rid of the smell is to aerate the water, ideally at the borehole pump.  I'm looking for solutions/suggestions for this.  Particularly I can't seem to find any prices!  Also, is there a system we can use inside the house (would have to be small) to eliminate the smell.  Any advice would be welcome.

 

I'm not sure whether you're interested in DIYing a solution, but it's probably still worth reading through what Jeremy Harris did with his borehole (he had hydrogen sulphide in the water, among other things). He explains a lot of what's going on and the different things he tried to solve various problems.

 

He turned it into a PDF here:

 

There have been other posts about this too - Google (note: may be less effective with other search engines)

the following text: "hydrogen sulphide" buildhub