Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Department of Electronics and Information Technology have jointly developed an ‘Electronic Nose’ for environmental monitoring.
The portable device can help sniff out a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and odorants at a pulp and paper mill industry. It measures odour concentration and odour intensity.
Besides, it also establishes a correlation between sensory and analytical measurements for the sulphurous odorants generated from pulp and paper industries, tanneries and distilleries.
This has been the first attempt in India to develop such a product using odour sensors that make use of intelligent software to identify odorous molecules.
The pulp and paper industry emits a variety of gases, namely, hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide, and dimethyl disulphide all of which beyond a certain concentrations may adversely affect the environment and human health.
The Electronic Nose is currently functioning successfully at The Mysore Paper Mills Limited, Bhadravathi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Paper Mill.
The researchers are currently working on the application of Electronic Nose to monitor gas emissions from any source, be it an industry or leakage of petroleum pipes going through fields or farms.