Assessment of Odor in the Ambient Air around An Ethanol Plant using Trained Human Sniffers and Dispersion Modelling Approach

摘要

Odor is listed as a subcategory under air pollutions. The goal of the current study is to assess the odor impact around an ethanol plant, located in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada. The odor assessment consisted of three major steps. First, the downwindodor plumes were measured by recording odor intensity, hedonic tone and character using trained human sniffers for periods of 10 minutes per session covering early morning, noon, late afternoon, and evening. Second, the odor emissions were measured fromthree odor sources of the ethanol plant (heil dryer stack, C02 scrubber stack, and outside wastewater lagoon). The odor concentrations of the collected air samples were measured in the olfactometry lab for determining the odor emission rates. Third, byinputting the odor emission rates, the meteorological data, and the field sniffer locations into CALPUFF and AERMOD air dispersion models, the odor concentrations at the receptors were predicted which then were compared with the field plume odor intensity results. The results were intended to assist in setting ambient odor criteria in order to mitigate the odor annoyance to the neighboring communities.