The Odour Potential: A New Tool for Odour Management

This paper outlines a recently developed test for assessing the level of odour associated with a liquid. Called the odour potential, the test involves measuring the threshold odour number of air blown through the liquid sample under conditions which are likely to establish equilibrium. The odour potential of liquids associated with wastewater treatment can vary from a few hundred for final effluents and fresh crude sewage, to over a million for septic sewage, and four million for some sludge liquors. Odour‐potential measurements may not be as useful as an odour map for ranking sources of odour at a sewage‐treatment plant, but they provide extra information for diagnosing the causes of odour.