Abstract:

With the increasing awareness of environmental issues, odor pollution has been recognized as a typical environmental hazard. Odor pollution in China comes from a variety of sources and the cost of odor measurements is high. Currently a hot topic in odor pollution control is to develop odor prediction models based on easily measurable parameters to decrease the difficulty of odor measurement and control. This paper introduces the basic concept of odor pollution and summarizes and compares different odor classification standards and measurement methods. Research progress on odor prediction models is reviewed, including multiple linear regression commonly used to establish quantitative relationship between odor concentration/intensity and pollutant concentrations. There are obvious differences in the results obtained from different studies and models, and accurate odor threshold values are key to optimizing the models. Furthermore, as an environmental issue, atmospheric dispersion and emission rate of odor pollutants are discussed. Different atmospheric diffusion models have been used to predict odor diffusion in the atmosphere, however, different models require different basic data and knowledges, therefore it is important to choose an appropriate model based on the actual application scenario. Emission rate, as an important input parameter in atmospheric dispersion models, can also be measured using different methods and devices, but differences between the results are to be expected, and cross-validation is needed. This review provides scientific guidance for the identification and control of odor pollution.

Key words: odor pollution, odor concentration/intensity, determination method, prediction model, atmospheric diffusion model