Use of Chemical Sensor Arrays for the Recognition and Valuation of Odour Emissions from Agriculture

Abstract

For a wide variety of reasons, residents who live close to farms are claiming more and more that they are disturbed by odour emissions. Thus far, the human nose has been the only means of assessing the an- noyance caused by these emissions. Since this olfactometric method has many disadvantages such as lack of reproducibility, subjectiveness, high personnel expenses, and its dependence upon the daily form of the test persons, a system is being developed which allows odour to be measured by an instrument. This contribution presents the methods and documents initial quantitati- ve results which prove the suitability of the systems used.