Characterization of Odorants in an Air Wet Scrubber Using Direct Aqueous Injection-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (DAI-GC-MS) and Solid Phase Extraction (SPE-GC)

One of the biological methods to reduce odours emission from livestock buildings is bioscrubber. Characterization (identification and quantification) of key odorants from an air wet scrubber in livestock buildings is presented. The key odorants represent five chemical groups, i.e. sulphides, alcohols, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), phenols and indoles. Direct aqueous injection (DAI) and solid phase extraction (SPE) methods were used for sample preparation before injecting the samples into the gas chromatography. Gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) was used for identification and quantification of samples prepared by DAI and SPE. The SPE method had a high recovery (i.e. 89-100%). However, DAI showed a better linearity, a lower limit of detection (LOD) and a lower limit of quantification (LOQ) than the SPE method. The DAI method was preferred for identification and quantification as it is cheaper, easier to handle, without sample preparation and highly applicable. For at least two odorants, i.e. phenol and 1-butanol, LOD and LOQ were below literature values for odorants detection limits in livestock buildings. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to verify the identification of odorants, prepared by DAI, according to their m/z values.