Continuous monitoring of odours at a biofilter outlet

Abstract

[Abstract] The experience matured in the field of biofiltration applied to odour removal enabled to study the correlation between some of the characteristic parameters of the biofilter bed (e.g. T, RH, ?P) with the emitted odour concentration. Today odour measurement can be performed only by classical olfactometry. Classical olfactometry is an expensive and time-consuming method that is not suitable for continuous monitoring as needed by operators of compost facilities. This paper describes the experimental approaches adopted for the development of a system for the continuous monitoring of odour emissions, i.e. an instrument for the repeated air analysis, capable of qualitatively and quantitatively recognizing odours. This work shows the results of the first experiments carried out with the purpose of developing an electronic nose to be applied at a biofilter outlet for the real-time odour concentration measurement and for the detection of the exceeding of a given odour «alarm threshold».