Real time, automatic and remote-activated sampling system for industrial odour emissions compliant with the European Standard EN 13725

Project Information

ODORPREP

Grant agreement ID: 756865

DOI

10.3030/756865

Project closed

EC signature date 11 March 2017

Start date 1 March 2017

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 1 425 125,00

EU contribution

€ 997 587,50

Coordinated by

LAB SERVICE ANALYTICA SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ODORPREP (Real time, automatic and remote-activated sampling system for industrial odour emissions compliant with the European Standard EN 13725)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"Odour emission is a growing environmental problem due to industrialization. Olfactory nuisances remains the top air pollution complaint in the EU. Odour complaints can shut down facilities, as negative publicity and media attention can result on limiting or even stopping industry activities, sometimes facing legal actions and fines. On the other hand, environmental impacts from odour emissions have economic consequences of control costs – economic penalty assessed for noncompliance industries. Although the trend is towards quantitative odour management, from a technical perspective it is very complex to perform accurate and representative samples to determine the real exposition to odours.
ODORPREP will be the first on-demand system for monitoring and sampling air in presence of odour emissions designed in response to the Quality Air Standard for ""Determination of odour concentration by dynamic olfactometry"" (ISO EN13725:2003).
OdorPrep is composed by 3 components, a trigger system (OdorLab) consisting on a web platform and a mobile application that registers systematically the population complaints allowing for real-time detection, a real-time odor monitoring and an on-demand sampling system which collects air samples at the moment of an odour event and a network of accredited laboratories which analyse the samples according to EN13725.
OdorPREP will comply with European directive 2010/75/EC and Quality Air Standard (10/2004). It will bring saving of control costs and penalties for the industry as the system will allow them to detect at real time an odour emission, so they could have a rapid and effective response in case of an accident or repeated odour emission episode. OdorPREP will involve the citizens helping to create a positive public image of the facilities using this system and will contribute to positive relationship with the industrial activity. In addition, this fast response will increase citizens´ life quality.
ODORPREP will provide industries and environmental authorities with a reliable and cost-effective tool, it is the first on-demand sampling system and real-time monitoring network which can automatically activate the remote sampling of the odour emission for its later measurement according to European standards. Therefore, the main objective of the project is the industrialization, certification and market introduction of ODORPREP.
"

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the project, an OdorPrep manager mobile application has been developed with all the available options to control the remote OdorPrep sampling and monitoring units. Each unit has its own remote data storage and touch screen computer to be always set on site by authorized operators.
A dedicated IoT platform and its respective software and hardware solution has been created in order to integrate and gather data and possible alerts coming from odor sensors: e-noses or arrays of sensors with their own communication protocols. A new web based software platform, linked to its mobile application, has been created to activate the OdorPrep networks when odor complaints thresholds are exceeded. The OdorLab platform works thanks to the support of a group of volunteers, available to communicate in real time their odour complaints. Volunteers communicate their olfactory annoyance through their mobile APP (existing 3 levels of discomfort). The platform allows to identify the volunteer and communicate his/her position via GPS and allows to include a comment about the type of smells. All the registered complaints allow to create a real-time odour map, updated hourly. The OdorLab platform can exchange information with the OdorPrep sampling system and when a preset threshold is exceeded, Odorprep occurs the sampling according to its own tailored configuration.
OdorLab is an easy web application that guarantees simplicity of access in PCs, tablets and smartphones (using Android and iOS platforms). In addition, the web application allows interaction with receptors, samplers and weather stations using Internet, working in a bidirectional connection with the database. Within the second period, the software architecture has been defined, the cloud platform has been launched and mobile application has been tested.
Two different applications have been created to carry on citizen science approach depending on commercial and technical needs:
• OdorBot: a program that interacts with users through messages, commands and requests; the application runs on the Telegram platform and records the reports in .csv format on a private server. The scope is to collect preliminary evidences of the problem in order to let Municipalities decide to proceed or not with the competent Authorities;
• Odor Alert: technicians in charge to handle the odor monitoring campaign may give a restricted number of credentials to trusted people who has been trained to report odor alerts. Alerts are visible in the campaign section of the App. Technician may decide to start one or more sampling units. Finally, 8 prototype units have been built and tested during the validation tests in this period

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

OdorPrep® is suitable for users such as Environmental Public Authorities, Consultancy companies, Olfactometric and chemical laboratories, Industries… A deepen research and dissemination activity has been done to promote and validate the technology in collaboration with Public Entities (e.g. Environmental and Water Minister of Bulgaria, ISSeP; Environmental Public Institute in Belgium; Local EPAs in Italy), Multinational companies (SUEZ, VEOLIA) and main key opinion leaders in Europe. Industrial companies responsible for controlling their odour emissions have also been contacted in Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Benelux, UK to test the technology. Waste and water treatment plants, as well as oil refining plants and chemical plants are our target industries.
A key dissemination activity has been done at Institutional level. LabService is attending at main National and European working groups that are drawing up technical guidelines and standards about dynamic olfactometry and instrumental odor monitoring system. The triggering system is the key for this first real-time network which can automatically activate the remote sampling of odour emission. OdorPrep is providing an exclusive system that the population can activate when detecting an annoying odour and start the triggering process. OdorPrep® links for the first time citizens’ objective odour detection with a real-time odour control and monitoring. Thanks to its triggering system, sample collection is much cheaper than current alternatives. Moreover, monitoring costs are lower, as there is no on-site surveillance. For the sampling system we will use sample bags five times cheaper than Teflon bags, which allows a very competitive product compared to actual alternatives. OdorPrep® will contribute to prevent and control odour pollutant emissions, allowing to perform a high number of samples at a competitive cost, with the added value of quality representativeness measurements (EN13725)

citizen science and multisensor technology for on-demand odor sampling

Logo OdorPrep

Brochure-OdorPrep-EN