RHINOS: A lightweight portable electronic nose for real-time odor quantification in wastewater treatment plants

Abstract

Quantification of odor emissions in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is key to minimize odor impact to surrounding communities. Odor measurements in WWTPs are usually performed via either expensive and discontinuous olfactom- etry hydrogen sulfide detectors or via fixed electronic noses. We propose a portable lightweight electronic nose specially designed for real-time odor moni- toring in WWTPs using small drones. The so-called RHINOS e-nose allows odor measurements with high spatial resolution, and its accuracy is only slightly worse than that of dynamic olfactometry. The device has been calibrated using odor samples collected in a WWTP in Spain over a period of six months and validated in the same WWTP three weeks after calibration. The promising results obtained support the suitability of the proposed instrument to identify the odor sources having the highest emissions, which may give a useful indication to the plant man- agers as regards odor control and abatement.