Odour Impact Assessment Handbook E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 519

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Odours have become a priority concern for facility operators, engineers and urban planners who deal with waste and industrial treatment plants. The subjectivity of smell perception, its variability due to frequency and weather conditions, and the complex nature of the substances involved, has long hampered the regulation of odour emissions.

This book provides a comprehensive framework for the assessment, measurement and monitoring of odour emissions, and covers: 

• Odour characterization and exposure effects
• Instruments and methods for sampling and measurement
• Strategies for odour control
• Dispersion modelling for odour exposure assessment
• Odour regulations and policies
• Procedures for odour impact assessment
• Case studies: Wastewater treatment, composting, industrial and CAFO plants, and landfill

Intended for researchers in environmental chemistry, environmental engineering, and civil engineering, this book is also an invaluable guide for industry professionals working in wastewater treatment, environmental and air analysis, and waste management.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

List of Contributors

Preface

Glossary and Abbreviations

Errata Corrige

Part 1: Introduction

1.1 Origin and Definition

1.2 Quantifying Odour

1.3 Effects of Odour

1.4 Odour Impact Assessment Approaches

References

Part 2: Odour Characterization and Exposure Effects

2.1 Attribute Descriptors

2.2 Chemistry and Odours

2.3 Odorous Compounds, Thresholds and Sources

2.4 Public Health Relevance of Odour Exposure

2.5 Odour Annoyance and Nuisance

References

Part 3: Instruments and Methods for Odour Sampling and Measurement

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Sampling Techniques

3.3 Measurement of Odorous Substances

3.4 Determination of Odour Concentration by Dynamic Olfactometry

3.5 Determination of Odour Concentration by the Triangular Odour Bag Method

3.6 Estimation of Emission Rate

3.7 Measurement of Odour Exposure by Field Assessment

3.8 Measurement of Odour by Sensor Arrays

References

Part 4: Strategies for Odour Control

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Control of Odour Dispersion

4.3 Control of Odour Effects on an Exposed Community

4.4 Control of Odour Emission

References

Part 5: Dispersion Modelling for Odour Exposure Assessment

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Odour Perception

5.3 Overview on Types of Odour Dispersion Model1

5.4 Algorithms to Estimate Short-Term Odour Concentrations2

5.5 Annoyance

5.6 Odour Impact Criteria for Use in Dispersion Modelling

5.7 Meteorological Input to Odour Dispersion Models

5.8 Evaluation of Odour Dispersion Models

References

Part 6: Odour Regulation and Policies

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Regulation Based on Air Quality Standards and Limit Values

6.3 Regulation Based on Direct Exposure Assessment

6.4 Regulation Based on ‘No Annoyance’

6.5 Regulation Based on Application of Best Practice

6.6 Comparison of Different Regulatory Approaches

References

Part 7: Procedures for Odour Impact Assessment

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Factors Contributing to Odour Impact

7.3 Odour Impact Assessment from Exposure Measurement

7.4 Odour Impact Assessment from Sources

7.5 Mitigation of Odour Impact

7.6 Odour Monitoring

References

Part 8: Case Studies for Assessment, Control and Prediction of Odour Impact

8.1 Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant

References

8.2 Composting Plant

References

8.3 Landfill of Solid Waste

References

8.4 Industrial Activities

References

8.5 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Plants

References

8.6 Assessment, Control and Management of Odour in Sensitive Areas

References

Index

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List of Contributors

Vincenzo Belgiorno, Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

Manabendra Bhuyan, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, India

Laura Cappelli, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Material and Chemical Engineering, Italy

Renato Del Rosso, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Material and Chemical Engineering, Italy

Licinia Dentoni, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Material and Chemical Engineering, Italy

Nimisha Dutta, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, India

José M. Estrada, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology Valladolid University, Spain

Stefano Giuliani, Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

Takaya Higuchi, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Japan

Nikolaos Kalogerakis, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece

N.J.R. Kraakman, CH2M Hill, Chatswood NSW Australia and Laboratory of Biotechnology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Martin Kranert, ISWA (Institut für Siedlungswasserbau, Wassergüte- und Abfallwirtschaft) University of Stuttgart, Germany

Mihalis Lazaridis, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece

Raquel Lebrero, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology Valladolid University, Spain

Jenni Lehtinen, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences – University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Raul Muñoz, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology Valladolid University, Spain

Vincenzo Naddeo, Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

Jacques Nicolas, Department of Environmental Sciences and Management, Arlon Campus Environment, Faculty of Sciences, University of Liége, Belgium

Martin Piringer, Section Environmental Meteorology, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Vienna, Austria

G. Quijano, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, Valladolid University, Valladolid, Spain

Martin Reiser, ISWA (Institut für Siedlungswasserbau, Wassergüte- und Abfallwirtschaft), University of Stuttgart, Germany

Anne-Claude Romain, Department of Environmental Sciences and Management, Arlon Campus Environment, Faculty of Sciences, University of Liége, Belgium

Günther Schauberger, WG Environmental Health, Department for Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria

Selena Sironi, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Material and Chemical Engineering, Italy

Izabela Sówka, Institute of Environmental Protection Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland

Kaiying Y. Wang, School of Biosystems Engineering & Food Science, Zhejiang University, China

Tiziano Zarra, Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

Preface

Odour emissions are considered to be the main cause of disturbance noticed by the citizens living near some facilities. Even though a real toxicological-sanitary risk is hardly ever associated to the odour impact from sources connected to the activities of waste management and similes, due to the rarely dangerous nature of the smells as well as the generally very low concentrations, the collective imagination often associates the bad smell to conditions of ‘non healthy’ air. In fact, a valence higher than the one related to more dangerous contaminants, but not directly perceptible from our senses, is often attributed to them.

Odour emissions affect quality of life leading to psychological stress and symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite and irrational behaviour. Odours have become a priority concern for facility operators, engineers and urban planners that deal with waste and industrial treatment plants. Odour complaints can shut down facilities and prevent the expansion of existing facilities. The particular and complex nature of the many substances being dealt with in these facilities results in a ‘smell impact’. The extent of this impact depends on a variety of factors, most notably these factors are time, weather conditions and the subjectivity of each individuals' perception of a specific smell. When combined, these factors have delayed progress in odour regulation.

The difficulties in resolving these controversies are also the result of an absence of universally recognized standards for objectively determining the negative effect induced. Only a few countries, in fact, have odour quality criteria or odour emission thresholds for industrial sources. On the European scale, standard EN 13725:2003 makes reference to the sampling and quantification of odours using dynamic olfactometry from sources. USA, Australia, Canada and Japan are following similar approaches.

Offensive odours are not only a direct threat for human health and welfare, but also represent a significant contribution to photochemical smog formation and particulate secondary contaminant emission. In this context, a cost-effective and environmentally friendly abatement of odours is crucial in a world increasingly concerned about sustainability and environmental preservation, but also increased life quality standards. Physical/chemical technologies have been widely used due to their low footprint, extensive experience in design and operation and rapid start-up, however, they exhibit significant environmental impacts and high operating costs. On the other hand, biotechnologies have been marketed as low-cost, environmentally friendly odour abatement methods.

The aim of this book is to provide a theoretical and practical basis for responding to the problem of sampling and measuring odours using olfactometric, analytical and mixed techniques to assess the impacts. This is in order to provide a realistic response to the demand for information from the population and from the technical-scientific world, while at the same time providing an objective instrument for the authorities managing and monitoring environment and the professional figures who are becoming more and more involved in this type of problem.

This handbook contains the work of 28 contributors from 13 different countries. The experience behind the authors stems from years of technical activity and scientific research in assessing odour environmental impact. The applicative approach that this handbook adopts in Part 8 is coherent with the numerous applications in the methods and processes field, in which the progress made in international scientific research has been integrated with the applicative limits and the need to supply results.

V. Belgiorno, V. Naddeo and T. Zarra Fisciano, Italy (August 2012)

Glossary and Abbreviations

Acute odour effect: the effect due to short-term exposure to odours sufficiently intense to cause adverse effects.

Adaptation: the phenomena of reduced sensitivity to a stimulus after prolonged exposure. Unlike habituation this refers to a reduced physiological as opposed to psychological response to a stimuli.

Annoyance: (1) when used in relation to an odour's character or pleasantness, annoyance is akin to the hedonic rating of an odour's pleasantness. (2) When used in conjunction with population annoyance surveys, it is a function of the attitude and feelings of the community towards a source (or sources) of ongoing odour impacts.

Area Source: a surface-emitting source, which can be solid for example, the spreading of wastes, material stockpiles, surface of a biofilter, or liquid for example, storage lagoons, effluent treatment plant.

Assessor: somebody who participates in odour testing.

Delayed olfactometry: measurement of an odour with a time-lag between sampling and measurement. The odour sample is preserved in an appropriate container.

Detection Threshold: the point at which an increasing concentration of an odour sample becomes strong enough to produce a first sensation of odour in 50% of the people to whom the sample is presented. The measurement of odour concentration is based on determining the detection threshold. This is a laboratory-based test and should be conducted according to the EN13725 European standard. The odour concentration at the detection threshold is one odour unit (per cubic metre).

Diffuse Sources: sources with defined dimensions (mostly surface sources) which do not have a defined waste air flow, such as waste dumps, lagoons, fields after manure spreading, un-aerated compost piles.

Dilution factor: the dilution factor is the ratio between flow or volume after dilution and the flow or volume of the odorous gas.

Direct olfactometry: measurement of odour concentrations without any time-lag between the sampling (operation) and the measurements; equivalent to dynamic sampling or on-line olfactometry.

Dynamic dilution olfactometry (DDO): the general procedure used to establish the relative odour concentration of a gas sample. The method establishes the extent of clean air dilution required to reduce the odour strength to a level that is at the threshold of detection for a calibrated panel. The sampling of the raw gas, dilution and presentation to the panel is undertaken in a continuous manner. The backcalculated concentration of the undiluted gas sample (OUE/m3) represents the number of dilutions with odour-free air required to reduce the odour of the gas down to the detection threshold.

Dynamic olfactometer: a dynamic olfactometer delivers a flow of mixtures of odorous and neutral gas with known dilution factors in a common outlet.

Electronic nose (E-Nose): an electronic device that uses an array of solid-state sensors, or synthesized protein sensors, that respond to the presence of different chemical compounds. The resulting electronic signals are processed using neural network computing techniques to help produce a two-dimensional spectral pattern that is specific to a particular mix of chemical compounds. The aim is to create different spectral patterns that can identify/fingerprint specific types of odour character.

European Odour Unit OUE/m3: that amount of odorant(s) that, when evaporated into one cubic metre of neutral gas at standard conditions, elicits a physiological response from a panel (detection threshold) equivalent to that elicited by one European Reference Odour Mass (EROM), evaporated in 1 m3 of neutral gas at standard conditions. One EROM is equivalent to 123 μg n-butanol.

Exposure: the dose received by a receptor, determined by the strength (concentration or intensity), time (duration and frequency) of a particular character odour.

Fugitive Releases: unintentional emissions from, for example; flanges, valves, doors, windows; that is, points which are not designated or intended as release points.

Fugitive source: any type of odour emission that cannot be readily quantified or defined. This usually refers to such sources as leaks in pipes, flanges, pump seals or structures, openings in buildings, floor spills, occasional sources such as uncovered truck loads or releases from pressure relief valves, and leaks in seals on covered tanks.

Gas Chromatography: this analytical technique is a form of chromatography that separates and detects compounds by the rate in which they move through an inert or un-reactive carrier gas such as nitrogen, helium or carbon dioxide. The time taken (residence time) to move through the glass or metal tube called a column is used to determine the type of compound present within the sample.

Habituation: a psychological term used to describe the process of decreasing behavioural response after repeated exposure to a stimulus such as odour over a prolonged period of time. This phenomena is particularly noticeable in commercial and industrial settings where occupational exposures to strong odours are no longer found offensive or even noticed by operational staff, for example, rendering plants, livestock, sewage and food processing.

Hedonic Tone: a judgement of the relative pleasantness or unpleasantness of an odour made by assessors in an odour panel. A methodology is described in VDI 3882, part 2. Odours which are more unpleasant will have a negative hedonic score whilst odours that are less unpleasant will tend towards a positive score.

Hyposmia: partial inability to detect odours (compare with anosmia).

Intensity: an assessment of odour strength based on an initial perception. This perception strength will rapidly diminish with constant exposure. The relationship between odour intensity and odour concentration depends on the specific intensity of the chemical or mixture being detected. Assessments can be made using the German method VDI 3882.

Isopleth: a line on a map connecting places registering the same amount or ratio of some geographical or meteorological phenomenon or phenomena. Commonly used to illustrate the output of odour models.

Mass Spectrometry: this is an analytical technique used to identify the chemical composition of a compound. The technique determines particles of the same type from the principle that particles with the same mass and charge will move in the same path in a vacuum when subjected to the same electric and magnetic fields. This principle of determining electronic mass and ionic charge allows the chemical composition of a sample to be determined from a database of existing compounds or unknown compounds to be detected. Three basic components make up a mass spectrometer; an ion source, a mass analyser and a detector.

Neutral gas: air or nitrogen treated in such a way that it is odourless, and which, according to panel members, does not interfere with the odour under investigation.

Odorant: a substance which stimulates a human olfactory system so that an odour is perceived.

Odour (or Odor): organoleptic attribute perceptible by the olfactory organ on sniffing certain volatile substances [ISO 5492].

Odour abatement efficiency: the reduction of the odour concentration or the odour flow rate due to an abatement technique, expressed as a fraction (or percentage) of the odour concentration in or the odour flow rate of the untreated gas stream

Odour annoyance survey (Community survey): standard survey method used to quantify the extent of population annoyance in different sectors of a community as a result of industrial odour impacts.

Odour concentration: the number of odour units in one cubic metre of gas at standard conditions. Note: odour concentration has a non-linear relationship with odour intensity.

Odour detection: to become aware of the sensation (smell) resulting from stimulation of the olfactometry system.

Odour diary: the systematic recording by individuals of odour events over a period of time at a defined location (normally a residential dwelling), including the date, time, duration, character, strength and weather conditions associated with each odour event.

Odour dose-response: the relationship derived between population annoyance and predicted odour impact concentrations, where the former is quantified via an odour annoyance survey and the latter is determined using odour emission measurement and modelling techniques.

Odour emission: the number of odour units per second discharged from a specific source.

Odour flow rate: the odour flow rate is the quantity of European odour units which crosses a given surface divided by time. It is the product of the odour concentration cod, the outlet velocity v and the outlet area A or the product of the odour concentration cod and the pertinent volume flow rate V. Its unit is OUE/h (or OUE/min or OUE/s, respectively).

Odour intensity: the perceived strength of an odour as rated by individuals against a numerical scale, such as that contained in the German Standard VDI 3882 Odour Intensity Scale.

Odour unit (OU): one odour unit is the amount of (a mixture of) odorants present in 1 m3 of odorous gas (under standard conditions) at the panel threshold. NOTE See also European odour unit.

Offensiveness: see hedonic tone.

Olfactometer: apparatus in which a sample of odorous gas is diluted with neutral gas in a defined ratio and presented to assessors.

Olfactometry: measurement of the response of assessors to olfactory stimuli [ISO 5492].

Olfactory: pertaining to the sense of smell [ISO 5492].

OMP: Odour Management Plan.

Panel member: an assessor who is qualified to judge samples of odorous gas, using dynamic olfactometry within the scope of this standard.

Panel: a group of panel members.

Perception: awareness of the effects of single or multiple sensory stimuli [ISO 5492].

Point source: a discrete stationary source of emission of waste gases to atmosphere through canalized ducts of defined dimension and air flow rate (e.g. chimneys, vents).

Population annoyance: a measure of the percentage of people in a community who consider themselves to be ‘annoyed’ or even more adversely affected by the impacts of industrial odours in their community (percentage at-least annoyed).

Quality: the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs [ISO 6879].

Recognition threshold (RT): the odour concentration which has a probability of 0.5 of being recognized under the conditions of the test.

Reference odour mass (ROM): the ROM is equivalent to 123 mg of n-butanol evaporated in 1 m3 of neutral gas.

Round: one round is the presentation of one dilution series to all assessors.

Sample: in the context of this standard, the sample is the odorous gas sample. It is an amount of gas which is assumed to be representative of the gas mass or gas flow under investigation, and which is examined for odour concentration [ISO 6879].

Specific or surface odour emission rate (SOER): the SOER per unit area of surface, which has units of odour per unit area per time (e.g. OU/m2s or OU/m2h).

Static dilution: dilution achieved by mixing two known volumes of gas, odorous sample and neutral gas, respectively. The rate of dilution is calculated from the volumes.

Static flux hood: an odour-sampling hood that is placed over an area source and which has a low flow-rate of neutral gas injected to allow a mixed air stream to be expelled from the hood. These devices work on the same principle as wind-tunnel sampling hoods, except that air within the static hood exhibits minimal turbulence.

Static olfactometer: a static olfactometer dilutes by mixing two known volumes of gas, odorous sample and neutral gas, respectively. The rate of dilution is calculated from the volumes.

Volume source: a source of odour emission such as a building structure from which odour diffuses from many different points.

Wind tunnel: odour-sampling wind tunnels are generally elongated hoods that are placed on to an areal odour source and have a flow-rate of neutral gas passed through in a plug-flow manner (i.e. the gas enters one end of the hood and sweeps through to the outlet end, where it is expelled for sampling). These devices generate substantially more turbulence within the hood due to the greater airflows per unit area involved.

Errata Corrige

(i) Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the support, understanding, and help of all the authors which the Editors would like to acknowledge. The hard work of these authors is the good fortune of any reader of this Book. The Editors are also grateful to their many colleagues who provided valuable suggestions for corrections and improvements to the Book.

The contents under Sections 2.5 at page 24 from line 36 to 42, at page 25 from line 1 to line 2 and at page 26 from line 13 to 16 and from line 32 to 39 are reproduced by permission of K. Sucker, R. Both, M. Hangartner and G. Winneke. After the publication of the book, the Editors realized that some sentences of an unpublished manuscript sent to the Editors by Dr. G. Winneke in February 2011 for a previous collaboration, have been used, by mistake, in the drafting of section 2.5 of the book without a proper accreditation.

The contents under Sections from 3.6.1 to 3.6.3 are reproduced by permission of L. Capelli, S. Sironi and R. Del Rosso. After publication of the Book, the Editors realized that some parts of a note sent to the Editors by L. Capelli on February 2011 for a previous collaboration, have been used, by mistake, in the drafting of section 3.6 of the book without a proper accreditation. Meanwhile, the note considered unpublished by the authors, was amended, integrated, updated, completed and published by L. Capelli, S. Sironi and R. Del Rosso as new original work in the paper entitled “Odor Sampling: Techniques and Strategies for the Estimation of Odor Emission Rates from Different Source Types”, 2013, Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220), Issue n. 13 – pages 938–955.

The Editors are grateful to all parties involved in these issues for the cooperation and understanding they have shown and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Finally special thanks are given to Emma Strickland, Rebecca Stubbs and all the other people that worked on this project at the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, for their assistance and insights in support of this book.

(ii) Page xi line 5

“Laura Cappelli” should be read “Laura Capelli”

(iii) Page 50 line 13

“3.6 Estimation of Emission Rate” should be read “3.6 Estimation of Emission Rate*” where the (*) links to a footnote with the following text “The contents under Sections from 3.6.1 to 3.6.3 are reproduced by permission of Laura Capelli, Selena Sironi and Renato Del Rosso. This material was amended, integrated, updated, completed and published by Capelli et al. as new original work in the paper entitled “Odor Sampling: Techniques and Strategies for the Estimation of Odor Emission Rates from Different Source Types”, 2013, Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220), Issue n. 13 – pages 938–955. Additional information on this issue are reported in the Acknowledgments.”

Part 1

Introduction

V. Naddeo, V. Belgiorno and T. Zarra

Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

1.1 Origin and Definition

Odour is the property of a substance, or better; a mixture of substances that depending on their concentration, are capable of stimulating the olfaction sense sufficiently to trigger a sensation of odour (Brennan, 1993; Devos et al., 1990; Bertoni et al., 1993). Even better, odour is a sensory response to the inhalation of air containing chemicals substances. When the sensory receptors in the nose come into contact with odorous chemicals, they send a signal to the brain, which interprets the signal as an odour. The olfactory nerve cells in humans are highly sensitive instruments, capable of detecting extremely low concentrations of a wide range of odorous chemicals. The type and amount (or intensity) of odour are both important in processing the signal sent to the brain. Most odours are a complex mixture of many odorous compounds.

Fresh or clean air is usually perceived as not containing any contaminants that could cause harm and it smells clean. Clean air may contain some chemical substances with an associated odour, but these odours will usually be perceived as pleasant, such as the smell of grass or flowers. However, not everyone likes the smell of wet grass or hay. Due to our sense of odour and our emotional response to it being synthesized by our brain, different life experiences and natural variation in the population can result in people having different sensations and emotional responses to the same odorous compounds (See Section 2.5).

Odour is a parameter that cannot be physically measured, unlike wavelength for sight or pressure oscillation frequency for hearing, nor can it be chemically determined as it is not an intrinsic characteristic of the molecule. It represents, in fact, the sensation that the substance provokes after it has been interpreted by the human olfactic system. The impossibility of physically and chemically measuring odour, the complexity of the odorants, the vast range of potentially odorous substances, the physical and psychic subjectivity of odour perception and environmental factors, together with the complexity of the olfactic system, represent a series of obstacles that render the characterization of odours and the control of olfactive pollution particularly complex (Zarra , 2007a; Dalton, 2002).