Julien Delva

Potential of a Network of Electronic Noses to Assess in Real Time the Odour Annoyance in the Environment of a Compost Facility

This paper presents a complete approach of continuous odour monitoring around an industrial plant, with an e-nose network named FIDOR, providing in real time the five components of the odour annoyance, the frequency, the intensity, the duration, the offensiveness and the impact on the receptor. Such FIDOR network was placed in the immediate surroundings of a compost facility in Belgium. Results show a good coherence between information provided by FIDOR system and odour level assessment with human noses. Some interesting correlations are also found between e-nose responses at different distances in a same radial direction from the source. The discussion is mainly focused on the potentialities and the limitations of such system.

Isolation and Biomass Production of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strain Binding Copper and Zinc Ions

Copper and zinc are essential trace elements participating in many physiological functions, notably immunity and protection against oxidative stress. Yeasts and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in particular, possess in their genome tandem repeats of the CUP1 gene coding for a protein (a metallothionein) capable of capturing and binding toxic elements such as copper ions. The number of copies of this gene in a cell determines its physiological level of resistance to these ions. This paper describes the selection, characterization, and production of a new copper-resistant yeast strain that can bind large quantities of copper and zinc. This approach should lead to increasing the bioavailability of these trace elements and hence to reducing their emission into the environment.

Relevance of the resident diary method to map odour sources.

The odour annoyance in the surroundings of an indust rial park in Belgium was evaluated through diaries completed by 42 residents during about two years. The studied area includes 13 potential odour emitting f acilities. The questionnaire aimed at providing twice-daily an odour annoyance rating on a 5-level scale together with an odour type. Data processing and interpretation stressed more pa rticul rly on the two types of result that can be extracted from resident diaries, i.e. a nnoyance percentage and annoyance level. The plausibility of the responses is examined as well. Mapping odour sources in this particular case of multi-source facility is ma de possible through the use of odour roses. With respect to first results obtained for y ear 2008, more recent data provide more detailed information concerning the role of ea ch facility to explain the whole odour annoyance. The resident diary method proves t o be relevant, especially in the case of an industrial area, provided that validatio n checks are performed to insure the data reliability.