Electronic nose applications in environmental monitoring are nowadays of great interest, because of the instruments’ proven capability of recognizing and discriminating between a variety of different gases and odors using just a small number of sensors. Such applications in the environmental field include analysis of parameters relating to environmental quality, process control, and verification of efficiency of odor control systems. This article reviews the findings of recent scientific studies in this field, with particular focus on the abovementioned applications. In general, these studies prove that electronic noses are mostly suitable for the different applications reported, especially if the instruments are specifically developed and fine-tuned. As a general rule, literature studies also discuss the critical aspects connected with the different possible uses, as well as research regarding the development of effective solutions. However, currently the main limit to the diffusion of electronic noses as environmental monitoring tools is their complexity and the lack of specific regulation for their standardization, as their use entails a large number of degrees of freedom, regarding for instance the training and the data processing procedures.

Exhaustive odour impact assessment should involve the evaluation of the impact of odours directly on citizens. For this purpose it might be useful to have an instrument capable of continuously monitoring ambient air quality, detecting the presence of odours and also recognizing their provenance. This paper discusses the laboratory and field tests conducted in order to evaluate the performance of a new electronic nose, specifically developed for monitoring environmental odours. The laboratory tests proved the instrument was able to discriminate between the different pure substances being tested, and to estimate the odour concentrations giving correlation indexes (R²) of 0.99 and errors below 15%. Finally, the experimental monitoring tests conducted in the field, allowed us to verify the effectiveness of this electronic nose for the continuous detection of odours in ambient air, proving its stability to variable atmospheric conditions and its capability to detect odour peaks.

Sampling is one of the main issues pertaining to odor characterization and measurement. The aim of sampling is to obtain representative information on the typical characteristics of an odor source by means of the collection of a suitable volume fraction of the effluent. The most important information about an emission source for odor impact assessment is the so-called Odor Emission Rate (OER), which represents the quantity of odor emitted per unit of time, and is expressed in odor units per second (ou∙s⁻¹). This paper reviews the different odor sampling strategies adopted depending on source type. The review includes an overview of odor sampling regulations and a detailed discussion of the equipment to be used as well as the mathematical considerations to be applied to obtain the OER in relation to the sampled source typology.

The EN 13725:2003, which standardizes the determination of odour concentration by dynamic olfactometry, fixes the limits for panel selection in terms of individual threshold towards a reference gas (n-butanol in nitrogen) and of standard deviation of the responses. Nonetheless, laboratories have some degrees of freedom in developing their own procedures for panel selection and evaluation. Most Italian olfactometric laboratories use a similar procedure for panel selection, based on the repeated analysis of samples of n-butanol at a concentration of 60 ppm. The first part of this study demonstrates that this procedure may originate a sort of “smartening” of the assessors, which means that they become able to guess the right answers in order to maintain their qualification as panel members, independently from their real olfactory perception. For this reason, the panel selection procedure has been revised with the aim of making it less repetitive, therefore preventing the possibility for panel members to be able to guess the best answers in order to comply with the selection criteria. The selection of new panel members and the screening of the active ones according to this revised procedure proved this new procedure to be more selective than the “standard” one. Finally, the results of the tests with n-butanol conducted after the introduction of the revised procedure for panel selection and regular verification showed an effective improvement of the laboratory measurement performances in terms of accuracy and precision.