Odour monitoring with e-noses in the Port of Rotterdan

In the heavily industrialized and densely populated Port of Rotterdam odour nuisance is the second largest reason for complains. The DCMR EPA has a control room that is manned 24 hours, 7 days per week. It receives on a yearly basis about 5,000-6,000 odour complaints from residents. One of the tasks of DCMR EPA is to investigate the cause of odour complaints by field inspection with the human nose. Comon Invent has developed an online e-nose technology for the evaluation of odour plumes in the field. DCMR EPA has employed this technology during an one year pilot study in order to investigate its feasibility to evaluate odour emissions originating from several petrochemical industries in the Port of Rotterdam. The technology has demonstrated a good potential to become a proactive Odour Management System. This presentation details the outline and some results of a research project that was carried out in the port of Rotterdam for one year. The project involved a temporarily installation of networks of electronic noses in the Rijnmond area which carried out continuous measurements under ambient air conditions. The electronic sensor data was evaluated in relation to odour complaints which are reported at the EPA control room and metrological information. A numerical data analysis was carried on electronic sensor data, metrological data and residential odour complaints. The main research questions of such a data-analyses reads: can a network of electronic noses be used for the automated detection and distribution of odour plumes? The analysis showed promising results. DCMR and Comon Invent have therefore decided to start a second pilot project in 2010. The first pilot project was performed with a coarse network of 10 online e-noses in an area of 50 km(2). In the second pilot project a dense network of 30 e-noses will observe an industrial area of 10 km(2).