Odour Source Identification and Support of industrial Odour Management  

GC-IMS technology allows to measure and monitor complex odour containing VOC mixtures in the field and helps identifying the odour source. Its portability and especially when attached to the circular gas flow unit (CGFU) make the instrument a very flexible and innovative on-site tool with uncompromised analytical precision. 

Molecular based analytical instruments such a s GC-MS set-ups require a lab infrastructure with high purity gas supplies and vacuum pumps which make it very challenging to bring to the field. In 2015 G.A.S. launched the circular gas flow unit which is fully controlled by the GC-IMS instrument firmware, purifies air and allows operating the GC-IMS independent from Lab-installed gas supply. It is also possible to run the GC-IMS power-source independent for several hours through a standard battery which can be used stand-alone or integrated into a car. Excellent separation of low molecular weight volatile compounds is achieved by using a short 15 m capillary column with a large inner diameter of 0.53 mm. It is demonstrated that GC-IMS 2D fingerprints show different patterns for different industrial odour sources which allow to differentiate the origin of the odour containing VOC mixture.
Full molecular elucidation of the complex VOC mixtures is on-going.