Environmental fundamental facilities have different odor emission characteristics depending on the type of treatment facilities. To overcome the limitations of the olfactometry method, research needs to be conducted on how to calculate the dilution factor from the individual odor concentrations. The aim of this study was to determine the air dilution factor estimated from manually measured concentration data of individual odor substances (22 specified odor species) in three environmental treatment facilities. In order to calculate the optimum algorism for each environmental fundamental facility, three types of facilities were selected, the concentration of odor substances in the exhaust gas was measured, and the contribution of the overall dilution factor was evaluated. To estimate the dilution factor, four to six algorism were induced and evaluated by correlation analysis between substance concentration and complex odor data. Dilution factors from O municipal water treatment (MWT) and Y livestock wastewater treatment (LWT) facilities showed high level of dilution factors, because concentration levels of hydrogen sulfide and methylmercaptan, which had low odor threshold concentrations, were high. In S food waste treatment (FWT) facility, the aldehyde group strongly influenced dilution the factor (dominant substance: acetaldehyde, i-valeraldhyde and methylmercaptan). In the evaluation of four to six algorism to estimate the dilution factor, the vector algorism (described in the text) was optimum for O MWT and Y LWT, while the algorism using the sum of the top-three dominant substances showed the best outcome for S FWT. In further studies, estimation of the dilution factor from simultaneously monitored data by odor sensors will be developed and integrated with the results in this study.

This research determined the threshold value of 10 specified offensive odor substances based on the 3 point comparison sensory method. The panelist's thresholds were calculated by taking the arithmetic, geometric mean, and 50th percentile. Three methods of calculating the odor thresholds from the same data are compared. For 10 odor substances, the panelist's thresholds revealed a logarithmically normal distribution. The 50th percentile was the best method among the three methods of calculating the odor threshold from the 270 thresholds of 18 panels. As a result, the threshold values of individual odor substances, including i-valeric acid, n-valeric acid, n-butyric acid, and butyl acetate ranged between 0.0001~0.006 ppm, while the values of methyl ethyl ketone and toluene were relatively higher than that of other substances at 0.7107 ppm and 1.2139 ppm, respectively. The threshold values of the 10 specified odor substances were compared in Korea and overseas, which showed that the characteristics of sensory response varied by substance and nation.