Chemical characterization of odors due to some industrial and urban facilities in Izmir, Turkey

The relationship between odor concentrations (olfactometry) and chemical concentrations (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, GC-MS) was studied for the odorous air compositions of a rendering plant, a sanitary landfill and an industrial area with large petroleum and petrochemical industries. Samples taken from the university campus located in a non-industrial and non-urban area were also studied for several organic components for comparison. Ambient air samples were taken into special bags by using an odor sampling device designed for field sampling of odors. In the laboratory odorous chemicals in the samples were transferred into adsorbent tubes and analyzed using a combination of thermal desorption and GC-MS. Results point to different characteristics of the odorous gases and air in and around the urban and industrial sources. Among the 64 specific compounds studied, 49 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected in rendering plant, 53 VOCs were detected in sanitary landfill and 44 VOCs were detected in petroleum and petrochemical industries. The compounds measured in the odorous gas composition are the alkanes, alkenes, carbonyls, arenes, chlorinated and other halogenated compounds and organic chlorides as well as the volatile fatty acids.