Ji-Won Ahn

Food decay and offensive odorants : A comparative analysis among three types of food

In this study, a list of offensive odorants including reduced sulfur, carbonyls, nitrogenous, and volatile organic compounds was measured by the indirect (instrumental) method during the decay processes of three food types (snipe egg, mackerel, and squid). The strengths of the odor release were also quantified in terms of dilution-to-threshold (D/T) ratio based on the air dilution sensory test. To collect odor samples for each food type, decaying experiments were conducted in 100mL throwaway syringes for 1 month. The results showed that ammonia had the largest mean ranging from 385 ppm (fish) to 554 ppm (egg). However, most odorants generally fell in the range of 0.01-10 ppm, regardless of food type. The odor strengths measured with the suprathreshold method in terms of average D/T values increased on the order of 33,520 (egg), 202,330 (fish), and 766,330 (squid). These results were highly comparable to the patterns of odor indices derived by empirical conversion of odorant concentration data. The overall results of this study thus suggest that a unique pattern of odor release develops among different odorants as well as food type.

BBQ charcoal combustion as an important source of trace metal exposure to humans

To provide information about charcoal combustion as an important source of atmospheric trace metal pollution, 11 charcoal products were combusted and PM(10) filter samples were collected. The PM-bound metal elements were extracted by microwave acid digestion and analyzed by ICP-AES. The concentrations of trace metal elements ranged from a few to 10(5)ng m(-3) in the following order of magnitude: Zn>Pb>Mg>Ba>Cu>V>Cr>Co>Cd>Ni>Mn>Se>As. Emissions of most elements from charcoal combustion were high compared to other sources. In case of Cd, Co, and Ni, their concentrations exceeded the inhalation minimum risk levels (MRLs) of the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (US-ATSDR) for chronic duration exposure by a factor of 30, 3.9, and 2.2, respectively. Likewise, Cd levels exceeded the US-ATSDR MRLs for acute-duration exposure by a factor of 10, while those of Pb and Cd exceeded air quality guideline (AQG) of the World Health Organization (WHO) by a factor of 29 and 59, respectively. Mn levels also exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Reference Air Concentrations (RfCs) by a factor of 2.7. This study shows that barbecue charcoal combustion can be an important source of trace metal emissions to the atmosphere with potential health risks.

Offensive odorants released from stormwater catch basins (SCB) in an urban area.

The potent role of stormwater catch basins (SCB) as a source of malodor in urban areas has been recognized because of its active involvement in the production and release of diverse odorants. Here, the status of odor pollution was investigated from two types of SCBs (i.e., wet and dry systems) by measuring a list of offensive odorants (i.e., reduced sulfur compounds (RSC), carbonyl compounds, nitrogenous, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and fatty acids). Samples from those SCB systems were collected three times a day for five non-consecutive days. According to our study, H(2)S recorded consistently the highest mean values of 2554 ppb (wet) and 699 ppb (dry system) among all major offensive odorants. In contrast, the most prevalent VOCs were distinguished between methyl ethyl ketone (250 ppb in dry SCB) and toluene (32.8 ppb in wet SCB). In general, most odorants tend to exhibit relative enhancement in the afternoon, regardless of SCB types. If the concentration values of each odorant are converted into odor intensity (OI), the RSC group was identified as the key components of odor formation in SCB. If the OI values of each individual component are bound to yield sum of odor intensity (SOI), their values for wet and dry system were 4.99 and 4.25, respectively. In light of the fact that SCBs can serve as a potential odor source in urban areas, it should be managed and maintained properly to suppress the propagation of odor into the surrounding environments.

A review of analytical method for volatile fatty acids as designated offensive odorants in Korea

A list of volatile fatty acids (VFA) including propionic acid, butyric acid, isovaleric acid, valeric acid, etc. is well known for offensive odorants. The analysis of odorant VFA is a highly delicate task due to high reactivity and unstable recovery rate. At present, analytical methods of VFA are recommended to include alkali impregnation filter method and alkali absorption method by the malodor prevention law of the Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE). In this review, a survey has been made to explore various approaches available for the analysis of VFA to include both official methods of the KMOE and others. In light of the unreliability of those established analytical methods, it is highly desirable to develop some substituting methods for VFA. Among such options, one may consider such option as sorbent tube (ST) sampling and cryogenic trapping-thermal desorption technique. Moreover, procedures used for standard preparation, sampling steps, and instrumental detection stage are also evaluated. Application of container sampling (like Tedlar bag) is however not recommendable due to significant (sorptive) loss in sampling and in storage stage. In the detection stage, the use of GC/MS is recommendable to replace GC/FID due to the presence of diverse interfering substances. Thus, it is essential to properly establish the basic quality assurance (QA) for VFA analysis in air.

Effects of sorbent materials on the cryofocusing analysis of gaseous reduced sulphur compounds

The relative performance of different sorbent materials employed in the cryofocusing (e.g. in cold trap (CT) unit) stage was investigated at sub-ambient temperature by the thermal desorption (TD)–gas chromatography (GC)–pulsed flame photometric detector. To this end, the TD-based calibration of five reduced sulphur compounds (RSC: H 2S, CH 3SH, CS 2, DMS and DMDS) and SO 2 was carried out via the Peltier cooling system with five types of sorbent combinations such as two single-bed (Tenax TA and Silica gel) plus three multibed types (a combination of either two from the following three sorbents: Tenax TA, Silica gel and Carbopack B). Relative performance of each of all five CT options, if evaluated in terms of response factors for each compound, demonstrated that each CT composition acts as an important criterion to distinguish detection properties between light and heavy sulphur species. Although the relative response of H 2S and CH 3SH was systematically distinguishable between the CT types, that of SO 2 was the most complicated to interpret. According to this study, the two CT types consisting of Carbopack B and Silica gel (CS-0.4 and CS-0.6) were the optimum choices for sulphur gas analysis in terms of basic QA parameters (sensitivity, reproducibility and linearity).

A study of analytical method for volatile fatty acids (VFA) by cryogenic trapping-thermal desorption (CT-TD) technique

In this study, 13 compounds including four volatile fatty acids (VFA) and nine volatile organic compounds (VOC) were analyzed by cryogenic trapping-thermal desorption technique. In order to evaluate the analytical method for VFA, calibration experiments were performed using five different sorbent materials. When the calibration results are compared between different sorbents, sampling tube filled with Carbopack X showed the highest response factor (RF) for both VFA and VOC. To validate this new analytical method for VFA using cryogenic trapping-thermal desorption technique, this method was compared with alkali absorption method recommended by the odor prevention law of the Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE). For this purpose, unknown samples were analyzed by two different methods, i.e., cryogenic trapping-thermal desorption (TD) and alkali absorption with solid phase microextraction (SPME). When the results of two different methods were compared, ratios of concentrations determined by the two analytical methods (TD/SPME) was found as 0.46 (valeric acid) ~ 0.71 (isovaleric acid). Therefore, additional study is required to properly establish and find stable analytical conditions for VFA analysis. Furthermore, comparison between two different methods should be made with more reliable calibration approaches.

Measurements of Volatile Organics, Newly Designated Offensive Odorants in Korea in 2008 and 2010: a Case Study on Gutter System

In this research, a total of 11 newly designated offensive odorants in Korea in 2008 and 2010 (styrene (S), toluene (T), p-xylene (p-X), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), butyl acetate (BuAc), isobutyl alcohol (i-BuAl), propionic acid (PA), butyric acid (BA), isovaleric acid (IA), and valeric acid (VA)) were selected as target compounds and analyzed from two types of gutter system in the urban environment. Because of the environmental significance of these compounds as offensive odorants, the results are meaningful enough to explore their behavior and distribution in the urban environmental systems. In the course of this study, samples were collected three times a day from two different gutter systems representing the wet (W) and dry (D) conditions. A large fraction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) data fell into method detection limit (MDL) range with exceptions of toluene, p-xylene, and methyl ethyl ketone. In contrast, the results of organic fatty acids were distinguished by the relative dominance of butyric acid and propionic acid over others. If the concentration data of all odorants were converted into odor intensity (OI), the results of aromatics, ketones, acetate, and alcohol groups approached zero level. However, odor intensity of organic fatty acids was noticeably higher with the value of 2.8 (on average) from both W and D system, suggesting their potent roles as odorants in gutter system.

A comparative analysis of volatile organic compound levels in field samples between different gas chromatographic approaches

In this study, a number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene, toluene, p-xylene, styrene, and methyl ethyl ketone were analyzed from samples collected in ambient air and under the field conditions. These samples were analyzed independently by two different set-ups for VOC analyses, i.e., between [1] gas chromatography/flame ionization detector with tube sampling - (F-T system) and [2] gas chromatography/mass spectrometer with bag sampling (M-B system). The analytical results derived by both systems showed fairly similar patterns in relative sense but with moderately large differences in absolute sense. The results of M-B system were high relative to F-T system with the F-T/M-B ratio below 1. If the relative biases of the two measurement techniques are derived in terms of percent difference (PD) in concentration values, the results were generally above 35% on average. A student t-test was applied to investigate the statistical significance of those differences between the systems. The results of both analytical systems were different at 95% confidence level for toluene, p-xylene, styrene, and methyl ethyl ketone (P

Removal Efficiency of Some Odorants against Water as Sorptive Media: A Case Study on Trimethylamine and Reduced Sulfur Compounds

In this study, the removal efficiency of trimethylamine (TMA) and four reduced sulfur compounds (RSC) of , , DMS, and DMDS was investigated using deionized water as absorbent. To this end, two types of experiments were conducted which include: (1) by passing both RSC and TMA standard gases through water contained in an impinger system and (2) by passing TMA gases through a water spray system. In the former method, TMA standard gases were effectively removed (below detection limit) in all experiments. Likewise, minor fractions of some RSC (, DMS, and DMDS) were removed by water in line with theoretical expectations. In addition, the first type of our experiment was extended further to test some commercially available odor treatment products. The results of this test showed that removal efficiencies of RSC were different significantly among 4 kinds of absorbent, while the removal of TMA was consistently good as water. In the second phase of experiment, removal efficiency of TMA was tested by passing its standard gas through a water spray system. The overall results of our study showed that the actual removal efficiency of odorants by water (as sorptive media) approached the values that can be predicted theoretically (by Henry`s law).

The Analysis of Airborne Trimethylamine Using a Headspace (HS)-SPME Method

In this study, the analytical performance of trimethylamine (TMA) were investigated with respect to headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method. In order to induce the elution of aqueous TMA to headspace, NaOH was added as a decomposition reagent to aqueous TMA standard. By controlling the combination of three major variables for TMA extraction, the extent of extraction was compared between the two contrasting conditions for each variable (i.e., reaction time (long (L) vs short (S)), exposure temperature (30 vs ), and exposure time (10 vs 30 min)). The results of this comparative analysis showed that the extraction efficiency for all eight types of HS-SPME combinations decreased on the order: L-30-30>L-50-10>L-30-10>L-50-30>S-30-30>S-50-30>S-50-10>S-30-10. The effect of reaction time appeared to exert significant influences on the relative recovery rate of HS-SPME at 90% confidence level. However, the effects of exposure temperature or exposure time were not so significant as reaction time. When the recovery rate of HS-SPME is compared against the direct injection of liquid standard into GC injector, it recorded as 2%. According to this comparative study, the reaction conditions for HS-SPME application can exert significant influences on the analysis of TMA.