Field Air Sampling with SPME for Ranking and Prioritization of Downwind Livestock Odors with MDGC-MS-Olfactometry

Air sampling and characterization of odorous livestock gases is one of the most challenging analytical tasks. This is due to low concentrations, physicochemical properties, and problems with sample recoveries for typical odorants. Livestock operations emit a very complex mixture of volatile organic compounds and other gases. Many of these gases are odorous. Relatively little is known about the link between specific VOCs/gases and specifically, about the impact of specific odorants downwind from sources. In this research, solid phase microextraction (SPME) was used for field air sampling of odors downwind from swine and beef cattle operations. Sampling time ranged from 20 min to 1 hr. Samples were analyzed using a commercial GC‐MS‐Olfactometry system. Odor profiling efforts were directed at odorant prioritization with respect to distance from the source. The results indicated the odor downwind was increasingly defined by a smaller number of high priority odorants. These ‘character defining’ odorants appear...