Odotech's 'Electronic Nose' To Control Odors Near Industrial Plants

Industrial odors in public areas are always troublesome. And you would certainly know why, if you are living in an area that has a wastewater treatment plant nearby. So Odotech, a company emerged out of Polytechnique Montréal, has built a sensor technology called 'Electronic Nose' to predict and measure the odors coming from these industrial plants. Electronic nose is not a new concept as such. We have heard of it being used for detecting explosives or for determining the quality of food. OdoWatch, a product from Odotech set out to put that concept to a new use in an attempt to let the plant owners help their neighbors get rid of the odor problems.



The natural environment near an industrial plant is first captured by folks at Odotech and the odors creating the problems are tracked and characterized in the labs where they set thresholds. After that, the electronic nose sensor and microweather station is set up in the plant's vicinity. Data collected from these two is processed by Odotech software to determine how the odor will spread on a hourly and daily basis. Based on this data, plant managers decide which scrubbers and biofilters are to be deployed to keep the odor under control. We like this application of sensor tech, don't you?

Via: TheEngineer