The bad odors produced by the Waste Water Treatment Plants, known as WWTPs, have become a growing concern in the cities and towns that host these facilities and are considered by citizens to be the main cause of the perception of pollution, along with the dust and noise.
Now, and thanks to a collaboration between the company Depuración de Aguas del Mediterráneo (DAM) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), a new way is being opened to detect and treat these odors.
According to the researchers, “the results obtained in the SNIFFDRONE project (Odor monitoring by drones for environmental purposes) are very positive and represent a significant advance in the field of odor management in the WWTP. The new system will help to take appropriate control actions and therefore improve the management of the plant compared to current practices “
This is how the technicians of the DAM R & D & i Department express themselves, when assessing the work carried out in this European research that ended on October 31st. Specifically, a drone has been developed capable of predicting “the odor concentration from the readings of chemical sensors and providing measurements that help to locate the sources of origin“, indicate from DAM.
Read more at Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)
Image: Olfactory drone with remotely controlled sampler for system calibration and validation. (Credit: SNIFFDRONE, ATTRACT initiative (GA 777222, Horizon 2020))