In a non-hazardous waste landfill an integrated odour monitoring system comprised with 2 IOMS, 2 H2S continuous analyser and two automatic air samplers has been operating since 2018: automatic air samplers are activated when two consecutive measurements of 20 ppb at 5 min intervals are measured by H2S continuous analyser or when overall odour emission measured by IOMS exceeded 500 ouE/m3 for more than 5 min.
Problems with odour emissions were noticed in May-August 2019 with almost a daily automatic samplers’ activation, often correlated with complaints of population; moreover, monitoring campaigns of biogas from the landfill surface showed significant increase of surface emissions for certain zones, implying that surface and fugitive emissions form landfill biogas (LFG) collecting system could have been responsible for such odour emissions. The LFG wellfield system of is comprised of a network of 301 vertical wells in the landfill, coupled with conveyance piping for the transport of LFG to energy recovery and 3 blowerflare facilities.
The International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN) took place as
Instrumental Odour Monitoring Systems (IOMS) represent the only tool available for environmental monitoring capable to perform real-time characterization of ambient air. They have been commonly used to assess odour impact at receptors thanks to their capability to detect odours and identify their provenance. An emerging application of IOMS concerns the real-time monitoring of emissions at plant fencelines. To do this, IOMS must provide a fast and accurate measurement of the odour concentration.