CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 54, 2016 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Selena Sironi, Laura Capelli Copyright © 2016, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-45-7; ISSN 2283-9216 Comparison of Evaluation of Air Odour Quality in Vicinity of Petroleum Plant Using a Prototype of Electronic Nose Instrument and Fast GC Technique Tomasz Dymerski* a , Jacek Gębicki b , Jacek Namieśnik a a Department of Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Faculty, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 G. Narutowicza Str., 80- 233 Gdańsk, Poland. b Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Chemical Faculty, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 G. Narutowicza Str., 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland. tomasz.dymerski@pg.gda.pl The paper presents the results of investigation on classification of the ambient air samples collected in a vicinity of the LOTOS Group S.A. petroleum plant with respect to odour. The investigations were carried out with an electronic nose prototype and a commercial electronic nose of Fast GC-type – HERACLES II. The prototype was equipped with a set of six semiconductor sensors by FIGARO Co. and a photoionization sensor of PID-type. Classification of the air samples depending on the sampling point with respect to the petroleum plant was performed with linear discriminant function supported with cross-validation method. Analyses with the HERACLES II yielded over 94.2% of correct classifications of the ambient air samples. In case of the electronic nose prototype correct classification was at the level of 67.5%. 1. Introduction Industry is a sector with wide spectrum of production profiles, various size of production plants and thus of diverse environmental impact, especially on ambient air as far as odours and odour nuisance are concerned (Taylor et al. 2008, Hoffmann et al. 2009, Chang et al. 2014). Special attention is paid to the industrial plants processing big amounts of resources, which are the ones of primary importance for economy but simultaneously have significant impact on neighbouring areas. These plants, typically petroleum and petrochemical plants, can release volatile odorous pollutants to the atmosphere. Potential sources of odours emission include: leaking installations, random failures, storage of fuels and resources, asphalt production and distribution as well as sewage treatment plants (Gostelow et al. 2001, Pearce et al. 2003, Henshaw et al. 2006, Capelli et al. 2008). One of the biggest emitters in the Tri-city Agglomeration (Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia) is the LOTOS Group S.A. petroleum plant. Despite monitoring of such compounds as methane, aromatic hydrocarbons from the BTX group and summary non-methane hydrocarbons each year brings an increase in the number of complaints on odour nuisance from the residents of the areas adjacent to the petroleum plant. One of the preventive measures is a collaborative research program for odour nuisance monitoring undertaken by the LOTOS Group S.A. and the Gdańsk University of Technology within a frame of the PBSII/B9/24/2013 scientific project. The consortium decided to work on implementation of the electronic nose as the technique enabling recording of short-term episodes of high concentration of odorants and offering operation in on-line mode. Due to the principle of operation based on holistic analysis the electronic nose instruments can be applied for both detection as well as identification of odour via assigning it to a suitable class of reference odours (Wilson and Baietto 2009, Wilson 2013, Boeker 2014, Gebicki 2016). In a classical approach the electronic nose is comprised of a few or several chemical sensors characterized by defined selectivity with respect to gas components of the analysed sample. In more modern approach the electronic nose can be a combination of parallel-connected chromatographic columns with a suitable detector. In case of this type of device the investigated gas sample is directed to a set (typically two) of chromatographic columns connected in parallel and differing in polarity of a stationary phase. The chromatographic columns separate volatile components, which are then identified by standard chromatographic detectors. In case of the DOI: 10.3303/CET1654044 Please cite this article as: Dymerski T., Gebicki J., Namiesnik J., 2016, Comparison of evaluation of air odour quality in vicinity of petroleum plant using a prototype of electronic nose instrument and fast gc technique, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 54, 259-264 DOI: 10.3303/CET1654044 259