Abstract
The verification of odor abatement technologies for livestock production based on chemical odorants requires a method for conversion into an odor value that reflects the significance of the individual odorants. The aim of the present study was to compare the SOAV method (Sum of Odor Activity Values) with the odor detection threshold measured by olfactometry and to investigate the assumption of additivity. Synthetic pig house air with odorants at realistic concentration levels was used in the study (hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, trimethylamine, butanoic acid, and 4-methylphenol). An olfactometer with only PTFE in contact with sample air was used to estimate odor threshold values (OTVs) and the odor detection threshold for samples with two to five odorants. The results show a good correlation (R2 = 0.88) between SOAV estimated based on the OTVs for panelists in the present study and values found in the literature. For the majority of the samples, the ratio between the odor detection threshold and SOAV was not significantly different from one, which indicates that the OAV for individual odorants in a mixture can be considered additive. In conclusion, the assumption of additivity between odorants measured in pig house air seems reasonable, but the strength of the method is determined by the OTV data used.
Highlights
The verification of odor abatement technologies for animal houses is normally based on dynamic olfactometry, where samples are collected in bags and transported to a laboratory for threshold measurements by human panelists within 30 h [1]
The aim of the present study was to compare the sum of odor activity values (SOAV) method (Sum of Odor Activity Values) with the odor detection threshold measured by olfactometry and to inves
The SOAV method is often applied for evaluating the significance of odorants found in air from livestock houses [16,17,18], and for estimating the efficiency of odor abatement technologies
Summary
The verification of odor abatement technologies for animal houses is normally based on dynamic olfactometry, where samples are collected in bags and transported to a laboratory for threshold measurements by human panelists within 30 h [1] This method has some drawbacks, such as the impaired storage stability of odorants in bags [2,3,4,5], the low recovery of odorants in olfactometers [6,7] and high variability between panelists [8,9]. The sum of odor activity values (SOAV), defined as the summation of concentration/odor threshold ratios, is often used to convert concentrations of odorants into a theoretical odor concentration This approach assumes that the OAV for the individual odorants in a mixture is additive. There are more advanced conversion methods such as the sums of odor intensity (SOI) or the equivalent odor concentration (EOC), where both the odor threshold and the sensitivity of the odor perception
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