Sensory characteristics analysis for typical odor emission sources

Abstract

The hedonic tone of an environmental odor is a powerful predictor of annoyance. Pertinent field surveys combined with laboratory analysis of landfill, pharmaceutical factories and rubber factories have been conducted, with the purpose of obtaining a behavior curve of the hedonic tone for specific odor emissions, and comparing the annoyance potential and odor persistence of the sources under investigation. The 9-point scale was used to determine the hedonic tone, and the odor concentration was measured using the Triangle Odor Bag Method. The concentration to be presented to panel members comprises a range of 5 or 6 dilution steps which differ by a factor of approximately 3. Using a suitable curve fitting procedure, a line can be fitted through the points obtained in the experiment. Characteristic H values at any concentration can be derived from the hedonic behavior curve. The relationship between the hedonic tone and lgOC conforms to the quadratic polynomial for the three sources. The persistence of odor is expressed as a dose (concentration) response and (intensity) function. According to the rate of change in odor intensity, the pharmaceutical odor is the strongest, followed by the landfill odor, and then the rubber odor. Annoyance potential is calculated by multiplying lgOC with the max hedonic value, meaning that the three sources are sorted as follows: rubber factory>landfill>pharmaceutical factory. This study will further the understanding of the sensory characteristics of different odor source

Keywords

• hedonic tone
• odor intensity
• annoyance potential
• persistence of odor