The correlation analysis between odor sensor and air dilution olfactometry method with odor emission facilities was performed for the real-time evaluation of odor emitted from the 13 facilities. The total correlation was less significant for all facilities due to various emission characteristics of odor. The correlation for the individual facility, however, showed a higher correlation coefficient (R=0.7371~0.9897). Especially, the strong correlation (above 0.9) was observed for the industry type with the odor characteristics like tobacco, styrofoam, acetic acid, and burning smell. The repeated odor measurements using the odor sensor showed good reproducibility with the mean relative standard deviation of 5.06%. The odor sensor could be useful tools for identifying and evaluating odor with an olfactometry in field, if the use and proofreading of the odor sensor are improved by a standardized method.

The study analyzed performance assessment factors of odor sensors from 4 different manufacturers, including minimum detection limit, humidity stability and temperature stability. In the minimum detection limit assessment, only one electrochemical gas sensor was able to detect ammonia and hydrogen sulfide at the concentration of 5 ppb. The standard deviation ratio was over 10%, and it increased as humidity rose. The range of temperatures in which the electrochemical and photoionization gas sensors could function well was between 25oC and 40oC, and the sensor output values were unstable at low temperatures. Regarding the temperature stability of the metal oxide semiconductor sensor for measuring complex odors, the sensor output values dropped considerably to 0~10oC, and were similar to the concentrations of odor gases generated at 25oC. The results of the test of odor sensor outputs after temperature and humidity pre-treatment revealed that the respective stable output values at 50% humidity and 25oC were similar to the concentrations of manufactured odors. In terms of temperature and humidity stability of the NH3, H2S and Complex odor sensors, all target substances had stable output values at 25~40oC and 50~65% relative humidity, and unstable values at low temperatures and high humidity. Therefore, implementing pretreatment systems including temperature and humidity correction (25~40oC, 50~65% RH) is necessary for the stable use of odor sensors.

In this study, odor sensors were evaluated in two areas, which were reproducibility of measurements and linearity and correlation of results. The evaluation of linearity and correlation showed that the linearity of the measurement object substance at low, medium and high concentrations of all intervals, and correlation (R2) also appeared to be quite high, at 0.8 to 0.9. Specific performance evaluation results of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, TVOC and complex odor sensor to the individual substances are somewhat different, but the result have able tendencies. All odor sensors showed detectable in all metrics at 5 ppb concentration in temperature 25oC, humidity 50%. However, there is needs to be determined that in many cases the standard deviation is 10% or more in 5 ppb, and reproducibility appears in the high concentration region with a standard deviation of less than 10%. Because complex odor sensor (MOS sensor) output value is relatively accurate concentration value for the odor and the reaction was stable, MOS sensor is to be considered methods for measuring the complex odor. Reactivity of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and TVOC odor sensor to the concentration of individual odor substances stably displayed, but the reactivity of the mixture material showed the same trend, however, the hydrogen sulfide and TVOC sensor reactivity were unstable. There is thus a need to maintain the proper temperature and humidity environmental operating condition of odor sensors.

This study was carried out to estimate the usefulness of metal oxide semiconductor(MOS) sensor as an odor measuring instrument. In this study, sensor output for 12 legal malodorous compounds was measured by two kinds of the marketed MOS sensor and was investigated the correlation coefficient between sensor output and odor indicators as like odor concentration, air dilution ratio. As a results, it was estimated that MOS sensor has a high use possibility as odor measuring device for the single compound analysis, as the correlation coefficient between sensor outputs and odor concentration, R2 appeared to 0.9 or more high.