Advancements in Instrumental Odour Monitoring System from Stationary Emission Sources

In the past few years, significant advancements have been made in the development of Instrumental Odour Monitoring Systems, though very little data is available for IOMS measurement at emission sources and it is believed that the main cause is associated with issues affecting continuous sampling from streams with high humidity. In this paper we show an approach developed for continuous sampling from flow ducts aimed at feeding a trained IOMS with DO data collected from the same sampling system. The system was devised to sequentially sample from two duct flows, enabling the characterization of input and output odour flows through an odour abatement device while monitoring its efficiency in odour reduction. The primary design issues addressed include: 1) decreasing relative humidity through controlled dilution, 2) implementing hardware and software adjustments to account for temperature fluctuations during extended operation and 3) developing algorithms to establish correlations between odour concentrations obtained through sampling/measurement according to EN 13725:2022 and the instrumental odour concentration provided by IOMS. Here we present the field-calibrated results of the continuous sampling coupled with IOMS: the device was installed across the flow ducts both upstream and downstream of an odour abatement unit within a waste treatment plant. After the final training/calibration, the system operated for several weeks and the collected data of instrumental odour concentration are presented: the analysis covers both the odour fluctuations over the plant’s daily working cycle and the efficiency of the installed abatement unit in reducing instrumental odour concentration.