Odour monitoring by novel multi-sensor array system

Offensive odours generally cause significant adverse effects on exposed population. Complaints about odour emissions are one of the most frequent environmental pollution incidents reported to regulatory authorities. In this context, odour management and control become essential in plants with high odour emissions such as wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).The first step, required in order to identify the best techniques to be implemented in the plant to control the odour emissions is their characterization.The study describes the identification of a new indicator for the characterization of the odor emissions of the different treatment units of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant, in order to control the odour emissions in a faster and more efficient way. The work shows the analytical equations of correlation between the concentration of the odour emission, characterized by the OEC method modified according to Giuliani et al. (2013) and by dynamic olfactometry according to EN13725:2003, and the wastewater chemical parameters values (i.e. BOD5, COD). The results show the existence of a relationship between the odour emission concentration generated by different treatment units of the WWTPs and the organic load concentration of their treated wastewater