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Objectives

The ODOR-GC project aims to develop an innovative instrumental and modeling infrastructure for the rapid and integrated monitoring of olfactory nuisances generated by various types of sources, such as landfills, industrial plants, biogas plants, wastewater treatment plants, etc.

In recent years, the proliferation of facilities capable of releasing odorous emissions in urbanized areas has led to a multiplication of nuisance emissions, generating growing concern about "olfactory pollution", often characterized by unpredictability and discontinuity over time, causing discomfort and protests in the public opinion, also following the increasing attention towards environmental and health protection.

The need for monitoring odorous emissions is assuming significant importance following the enactment of Legislative Decree No. 183 of 2017, which allows the competent authorities to establish limit values for odorous emissions and to impose the implementation of containment measures.

At the heart of the project is the general-purpose platform "Compact-GC", developed and patented at the Bologna section of IMM - Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of CNR. Starting from this platform, the ODOR-GC instrument will be optimized and validated to identify specific olfactory nuisances, transitioning from the current TRL 4 (Compact-GC) to a TRL of 7 (ODOR-GC).

  • Farms

  • Biogas Plants

  • Industrial Plants

  • Landfills

  • Wastewater Treatment Plants

    ODOR-GC instrument

    The ODOR-GC tool falls under the category of IOMS - Instrumental Odour Monitoring Systems, but, utilizing gas-chromatography analytical technique, it is capable of continuous measurements and qualitative analysis of the gas mixture, separating compounds and identifying them individually.

    The analytical "core" of the system (injector, pre-concentrator, separation column) is entirely made with MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) technology: this allows the measurement chain to operate at temperatures up to 150°C, enabling the detection of "high-boiling" compounds not detectable with standard instrumentation.

    Furthermore, the use of miniaturized MEMS components with low energy consumption will enable the integration of the system into a compact and fully autonomous case (such as a briefcase), which can be used in the field even for single spot measurements following non-systematic emission events.

    Another strength of the tool will be the associated web platform, capable of integrating measurement data with data generated by a modeling chain based on a high-resolution spatio-temporal meteorological model. This model will allow the prediction of the diffusion and trajectories of odors, presenting them to stakeholders within a geolocated and intuitive graphical interface dashboard.

    Activities

    1

    Selection of the main gaseous compounds that will constitute the target of the ODOR-GC instrument

    2

    Development, system integration, and optimization to create, starting from the analytical core of the general-purpose Compact-GC platform, the ODOR-GC instrument for odorant applications, to be tested in the laboratory

    3

    Laboratory characterization involving a comparison between the ODOR-GC system and GC-MS and olfactometric techniques to evaluate the performance of ODOR-GC in terms of sensitivity limits, ability to detect target compounds, and resolve and integrate chromatographic peaks

    4

    System integration to develop two versions of ODOR-GC: a cabinet for continuous measurements and a portable briefcase version for spot measurements of isolated emission events

    5

    Seasonal measurement campaigns at the sites of partner companies for a further phase of comparison between the results obtained from ODOR-GC and the responses from GC-MS and dynamic olfactometry

    6

    Integration of in-situ measurement data obtained from ODOR-GC with meteorological modeling data and visualization on geospatial maps, for the characterization of areas most affected by olfactory plumes

    Communication

    Here you can download useful and informative resources about the project