Comparison of the measurement techniques employed for evaluation of ambient air odor quality

The paper presents the results of investigation on ambient air odor quality in a vicinity of the industrial sewage treatment plant being a part of the crude oil processing plant. The investigation was performed during spring-winter season using a prototype of electronic nose and the Nasal Ranger field olfactometers. The prototype was equipped with a set of six semiconductor sensors by FIGARO Co. and one PID-type sensor. The field olfactometers were used to determine mean concentration of odorants, which amounted from 2.2 to 20.2 ou/m3 depending on the place of measurement. In case of the investigation with the electronic nose prototype a classification of the ambient air samples with respect to the place of sampling was performed utilizing the kNN (where k=3) algorithm supported with a cross-validation method. Correct classification of the ambient air samples was at the level of 47.9%. Performed investigation revealed that evaluation of the ambient air samples with respect to odor was possible using the electronic nose instrument.