Summary and Evaluation of the Odour Regulations Worldwide

Author(s):  
Anna Bokowa ◽  
Carlos Diaz ◽  
Jacek Koziel ◽  
Michael McGinley ◽  
Jennifer Barclay ◽  
...  

When it comes to air pollution complaints, odours are often the most significant contributor. Sources of odour emissions range from natural to anthropogenic. Mitigation of odour can be challenging, multifaceted, site-specific, and is often confounded by its complexity—defined by existing (or non-existing) environmental laws, public ordinances, and socio-economic considerations. The objective of this paper is to review and summarize odour legislation in selected European countries (France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, United Kingdom, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium), North America (USA and Canada), South America (Chile and Colombia), as well as Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and Asia (Japan, China). Many countries have incorporated odour controls into their legislation. However, odour-related assessment criteria tend to be highly variable between countries, individual states, provinces and even counties and towns. Legislation ranges from (1) no specific mention in environmental legislation that regulates pollutants which are known to have an odour impact to (2) extensive details about odour source testing, odour dispersion modeling, ambient odour monitoring, (3) setback distances, (4) process operations, and (5) odour control technologies and procedures. Agricultural operations are one specific source of odour emissions in rural and suburban areas and a model example of such complexities. Management of agricultural odour emissions is important because of the dense consolidation of animal feeding operations and the advance of housing development into rural areas. Overall, there is a need for continued survey, review, development, and adjustment of odour legislation that considers sustainable development, environmental stewardship, and socio-economic realities, all of which are amenable to a just, site-specific, and sector-specific application.

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Anna Bokowa ◽  
Carlos Diaz ◽  
Jacek A. Koziel ◽  
Michael McGinley ◽  
Jennifer Barclay ◽  
...  

When it comes to air pollution complaints, odours are often the most significant contributor. Sources of odour emissions range from natural to anthropogenic. Mitigation of odour can be challenging, multifaceted, site-specific, and is often confounded by its complexity—defined by existing (or non-existing) environmental laws, public ordinances, and socio-economic considerations. The objective of this paper is to review and summarise odour legislation in selected European countries (France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium), North America (the USA and Canada), and South America (Chile and Colombia), as well as Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and Asia (Japan, China). Many countries have incorporated odour controls into their legislation. However, odour-related assessment criteria tend to be highly variable between countries, individual states, provinces, and even counties and towns. Legislation ranges from (1) no specific mention in environmental legislation that regulates pollutants which are known to have an odour impact to (2) extensive details about odour source testing, odour dispersion modelling, ambient odour monitoring, (3) setback distances, (4) process operations, and (5) odour control technologies and procedures. Agricultural operations are one specific source of odour emissions in rural and suburban areas and a model example of such complexities. Management of agricultural odour emissions is important because of the dense consolidation of animal feeding operations and the advance of housing development into rural areas. Overall, there is a need for continued survey, review, development, and adjustment of odour legislation that considers sustainable development, environmental stewardship, and socio-economic realities, all of which are amenable to a just, site-specific, and sector-specific application.


Author(s):  
Marija Meišutovic-Akhtarieva ◽  
Eglė Marčiulaitienė

The article analyses the existing research on odour emissions from the passive odour source – municipal landfill for non-hazardous waste. The current research has been carried out in the Vilnius county, at the Kazokiškės landfill for regional municipal waste. Odour emissions were analysed using samples from waste of different age and at different outdoor air temperatures. The investigation determined the concentration of odourous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) formed in the landfill (mg/m3) and odour emissions (OUe/m2s). The odour concentration varied between 0.02 OUe/m2s (from 9 year old waste at 11oC) to 1.29 OUe/m2s (from 0–3 year old waste at minus 1 oC and minus 10 oC). It was determined that as temperature decreases (within the range of 11 to minus 10 oC), the concentration of odour emissions increases. The coefficient of correlation between the temperature of environment and the concentration of odours emitted from the landfill stood at minus 0.91.


2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Capelli ◽  
Licinia Dentoni ◽  
Selena Sironi ◽  
Renato Del Rosso

This paper focuses on the opportunities for using electronic noses for odour exposure assessment purposes, especially in cases where dispersion modelling is not applicable. Such cases include, for instance, those sources where a detailed characterisation and quantification of the odour emissions for every hour of the simulation time domain is particularly difficult, due to the nature of the source or to the variability of the emissions over time. In such situations, it is useful to determine odour exposure directly at receptors instead. This paper critically discusses the state of the art of electronic nose technology as far as its application to the determination of odour exposure at receptors is concerned. One example of electronic nose application to the monitoring of odours from an Italian municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill is reported, in order to discuss the instrument's potential and limits. The monitoring results are represented by the number of measures that are classified in a specific olfactory class; this information allows the odour exposure at each monitoring site in terms of odour detection frequency to be determined. Besides a quantification of the odour episodes, electronic noses allowed the identification of the landfill gas as the monitored landfill major odour source.


Author(s):  
Xinguang Wang ◽  
Gavin Parcsi ◽  
Eric Sivret ◽  
Minh Le ◽  
Richard Stuetz

As one of the important odour sources, landfill sites have drawn more and more public attentions. Odour emissions from landfill sites depend on the waste buried, operation activities, running conditions, etc. A study for finding out all possible odorous compounds from a landfill was conducted by analysing of on-site gas phase samples and emission samples from a landfill leachate in Sydney, Australia using thermal desorber – gas chromatography – mass spectrometer (TD-GC-MS) and air server – thermal desorber – gas chromatography – sulfur chemiluminoscence detector (AS-TD-GC-SCD). 49 odorants were identified from emission gas samples collected from landfill leachate collection pipe and only 8 odorants were detected from flux hood emission samples of the collected leachate sample. This indicates that more sampling and measurement techniques are always better to acquire all possible pollutants from an unknown odour source. The contributions of these odorants to overall odour emissions were also calculated based on their concentrations and odour thresholds. The top 10 odorants from leachate transportation pipe include methyl mercaptan, ethyl mercaptan, m-xylene, H2S, CS2, 1,2,3,4-tetra-methylbenzene, p-xylene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, ethylbenzene and α-pinene. They contributed more than 95% to the odour in the gas accumulated in the leachate collection pipe.


Weed Research ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
S CHRISTENSEN ◽  
H T SØGAARD ◽  
P KUDSK ◽  
M NØRREMARK ◽  
I LUND ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy R. Y. Coleman ◽  
Amanda Stead ◽  
Marc P. Rigter ◽  
Zhe Xu ◽  
David Johnson ◽  
...  

AbstractThe widespread use of herbicides in cropping systems has led to the evolution of resistance in major weeds. The resultant loss of herbicide efficacy is compounded by a lack of new herbicide sites of action, driving demand for alternative weed control technologies. While there are many alternative methods for control, identifying the most appropriate method to pursue for commercial development has been hampered by the inability to compare techniques in a fair and equitable manner. Given that all currently available and alternative weed control methods share an intrinsic energy consumption, the aim of this review was to compare methods based on energy consumption. Energy consumption was compared for chemical, mechanical, and thermal weed control technologies when applied as broadcast (whole-field) and site-specific treatments. Tillage systems, such as flex-tine harrow (4.2 to 5.5 MJ ha−1), sweep cultivator (13 to 14 MJ ha−1), and rotary hoe (12 to 17 MJ ha−1) consumed the least energy of broadcast weed control treatments. Thermal-based approaches, including flaming (1,008 to 4,334 MJ ha−1) and infrared (2,000 to 3,887 MJ ha−1), are more appropriate for use in conservation cropping systems; however, their energy requirements are 100- to 1,000-fold greater than those of tillage treatments. The site-specific application of weed control treatments to control 2-leaf-stage broadleaf weeds at a density of 5 plants m−2 reduced energy consumption of herbicidal, thermal, and mechanical treatments by 97%, 99%, and 97%, respectively. Significantly, this site-specific approach resulted in similar energy requirements for current and alternative technologies (e.g., electrocution [15 to 19 MJ ha−1], laser pyrolysis [15 to 249 MJ ha−1], hoeing [17 MJ ha−1], and herbicides [15 MJ ha−1]). Using similar energy sources, a standardized energy comparison provides an opportunity for estimation of weed control costs, suggesting site-specific weed management is critical in the economically realistic implementation of alternative technologies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Six ◽  
T. Diez ◽  
B. Van Limbergen ◽  
L. Keustermans

Around 70% of the drinking water produced by De Watergroep (a Belgian public water company) is extracted from 83 groundwater pumping sites. To control the risks that endanger the drinking water supply and for the groundwater extracted to be as pure as possible, a risk-based approach for the protection of the catchment areas is developed, as part of the water safety plans. The approach consists of three steps: first, the compilation of a site-specific source file, second, the performance of a risk analysis for every catchment area, and third, the development of a monitoring strategy and action plans. The general goals are to lower the level of purification and to enhance the sustainability of groundwater extraction. The listed benefits make it worthwhile to implement this approach, despite the uncertainties.


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