Environmental Odour (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 1449

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
WG Environmental Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Interests: annoyance assessment; odour emission; determination of odour exposure
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Guest Editor
Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Hohe Warte 38, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Interests: odour dispersion; environmental pollution; boundary-layer meteorology; urban meteorology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental odor is perceived as a major nuisance by both the rural and urban population. The sources of odorous substances are manifold. In urban areas, these include restaurants, small manufacturing trades, and other sources, which might cause complaints.

In the suburbs, wastewater treatment plants, landfill sites, and other infrastructures are the expected sources of major odor. These problems are often caused be the accelerated growth of cities. In rural sites, livestock farming and the spreading of manure on the fields is blamed for severe odor annoyance. In fact, environmental odors are considered to be a common cause of public complaints to local authorities, regional, or national environmental agencies. With a first edition successfully published in 2021, this second edition of the Special Issue series of Atmosphere will continue to address the entire chain, from the quantification of odor sources, abatement methods, dilution in the atmosphere, and the assessment of odor exposure for the an evaluation of annoyance. In particular, this series aims to encourage contributions that deal with field trials and dispersion modeling to assess the degree of annoyance and the quantitative success of abatement measures.

Prof. Dr. Günther Schauberger
Dr. Martin Piringer
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • odor
  • emission
  • dilution
  • atmospheric dispersion
  • ambient odor concentration
  • annoyance
  • separation distance

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 5612 KiB  
Article
Innovative Approaches to Industrial Odour Monitoring: From Chemical Analysis to Predictive Models
by Claudia Franchina, Amedeo Manuel Cefalì, Martina Gianotti, Alessandro Frugis, Corrado Corradi, Giulio De Prosperis, Dario Ronzio, Luca Ferrero, Ezio Bolzacchini and Domenico Cipriano
Atmosphere 2024, 15(12), 1401; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15121401 - 21 Nov 2024
Viewed by 348
Abstract
This study evaluated the reliability of an electronic nose in monitoring odour concentration near a wastewater treatment plant and examined the correlation between four sensor readings and odour intensity. The electronic nose chemical sensors are related to the concentration of the following chemical [...] Read more.
This study evaluated the reliability of an electronic nose in monitoring odour concentration near a wastewater treatment plant and examined the correlation between four sensor readings and odour intensity. The electronic nose chemical sensors are related to the concentration of the following chemical species: two values for the concentration of VOCs recorded via the PID sensor (VPID) and the EC sensor (VEC), and concentrations of sulfuric acid (VH2S) and benzene (VC6H6). Using Random Forest and least squares regression analysis, the study identifies VH2S and VC6H6 as key contributors to odour concentration (CcOD). Three Random Forest models (RF0, RF1, RF2), with different characteristics for splitting between the test set and the training set, were tested, with RF1 showing superior predictive performance due to its training approach. All models highlighted VH2S and VC6H6 as significant predictors, while VPID and VEC had less influence. A significant correlation between odour concentration and specific chemical sensor readings was found, particularly for VH2S and VC6H6. However, predicting odour concentrations below 1000 ouE/m3 proved challenging. Linear regression further confirmed the importance of VH2S and VC6H6, with a moderate R-squared value of 0.70, explaining 70% of the variability in odour concentration. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of combining Random Forest and least squares regression for robust and interpretable results. Future research should focus on expanding the dataset and incorporating additional variables to enhance model accuracy. The findings underscore the necessity of specific sensor training and standardised procedures for accurate odour monitoring and characterisation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Odour (2nd Edition))
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12 pages, 5739 KiB  
Article
Characteristics of Volatile Organic Compounds Emissions and Odor Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry
by Hongchao Zhao, Ying Cheng, Yanling Liu, Xiuyan Wang, Yuyan Wang, Shuai Wang and Taosheng Jin
Atmosphere 2024, 15(11), 1338; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15111338 - 7 Nov 2024
Viewed by 623
Abstract
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are not only essential precursors for the formation of ozone and PM2.5, but also hazardous to human health and responsible for unpleasant odors. The pharmaceutical industry has become an important industrial source of VOCs due to China’s [...] Read more.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are not only essential precursors for the formation of ozone and PM2.5, but also hazardous to human health and responsible for unpleasant odors. The pharmaceutical industry has become an important industrial source of VOCs due to China’s large emissions and complex emission chains. In total, 245 VOCs samples were collected and analyzed from 11 typical pharmaceutical companies in Zibo City of the North China Plain, in order to investigate the VOCs emission characteristics and odor impacts. The emission factor for the pharmaceutical industry was 7.97 ± 8.21 g/kg pharmaceuticals, while the main emission links were chimney emissions, equipment sealing leakage, and so on. Finally, considering both purifying efficiency and economic benefits, the multistage absorption (AB) method is most effective for VOCs concentrations below 100 mg/m3, while UV photo-oxygenation combined with adsorption (UVA) is more suitable for concentrations below 300 mg/m3. The Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO), Catalytic Oxidizer (CO), and Condensation + Adsorption (CA) technologies demonstrated greater stability and efficiency, particularly in the treatment of complex organic pollutants, highlighting their advantages in both VOCs and odor removal at higher concentrations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Odour (2nd Edition))
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