An Electronic Nose and Indicator Volatiles for Monitoring of the Composting Process

Abstract

The aim of this research was to study whether electronic nose sensor technology (NST 3320, Applied Sensor, Sweden) can be used effectively for monitoring of the composting process. The effect of aeration on the composting process was examined using two aeration levels representing insufficient and optimal aeration for composting. An additional aim was to identify possible indicator gases in the volatile organic compound profiles of the composts by on-line FT-IR and gas chromatographic determinations. The results indicated that the electronic nose was able to distinguish between the two composter bins after 13 days of composting. Of the volatile metabolites that were identified, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) proved to be a suitable indicator compound of anaerobicity as it was only produced in considerable quantities in the insufficiently aerated composter bin.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soils

“…Among them are microresp tubes detecting single volatile compounds (Kaufmann et al 2005) and metal oxide-based olfactory sensors, so-called electronic noses (Rajamäki et al 2005;Bastos and Magan 2007;Bruins et al 2009) or nanoparticle-structured sensing array materials (Han et al 2005).…”

Continuous monitoring of odours from a composting plant using electronic noses

“…The applications of electronic noses to the food industry have been proven (Ampuero and Bosset, 2003;Pardo and Sberveglieri, 2002;Schaller et al, 1998), whereas the possibility of applying these instruments for monitoring odour emissions of environmental interest (Abbas et al, 2001;Helli et al, 2004;Negri and Reich, 2001;Stuetz and Bourgeois, 2004), such as odours originating from waste treatment works and composting facilities (Baby et al, 2005;Rajamäki et al, 2005), is still under study. One difficulty of using electronic noses for environmental applications is that odours often are complex mixtures containing dozens of different compounds (Davoli et al, 2003;Smet et al, 1999).…”

Assessment of compost maturity by using an electronic nose

“…Electronic noses (e-noses) have proven useful to monitor the odour emissions in composting (Littarru, 2007;Sironi et al, 2007), and the aeration conditions (Rajamäki et al, 2005). A significant relationship between the biological activity (measured by the dynamic respiration index), and the odour molecule production (measured by an e-nose), has been found during high-rate food-waste composting processes (D'Imporzano et al, 2008).…”