"Electronic nose"

The electronic nose available at the Foundry Research Institute is used for detection and identification of organic aromatic compounds that form odours or flavours. The device is a portable gas chromatograph coupled with ultrasonic detector. Owing to a built-in library with over 700 compounds, they can be identified quantitatively in a range of C6 – C22. It is also possible to make quantitative measurements after calibration of the device or using a relative scale. The library can be extended further and enriched with new compounds.

• compound identification in real time (10 – 20 s),
• mobility,
• very high sensitivity of the device (the measurement threshold of the apparatus is in ppb, sometimes in ppt).

The measurement consists in sucking in an air sample and determining by gas chromatography the level of alkanes forming the flavour profile. Having selected several compounds typical of a given flavour, it is next possible to make their qualitative and quantitative identification (in conventional units or in metrological units if the apparatus has been calibrated to an accepted reference standard). Using the results, a spatial distribution of these compounds is next determined.

Owing to a large measuring range and rich library of compounds, the electronic nose has various applications starting with the environmental protection (odour abatement at various industrial plants – e.g. tanneries, chemical plants, sewage-treatment plants, dumping grounds) through the industry of food and cosmetics to the detection of drugs and explosives.

In foundry industry the electronic nose is used to determine odours emitted by foundry plants or by the individual foundry plant departments, e.g. core shop, moulding shop. To some extent, the device is also suitable for use in foundry technology, e.g. as a tool assisting the correct choice of binders and/or resins to reduce the strenuousness of foundry operations to both people and the environment.

The electronic nose can operate either as an independent device, taking the samples „by itself”, or it can analyse samples taken by other devices, e.g. a special portable set of field devices. The electronic nose has been designed to take and analyse gas samples, though analysis of liquid samples is also possible, providing they have been prepared in a proper way.

Example of screenshot - see the chromatograph and the quantity and type of the identified compounds: