For Daka it is important to keep pace with the legislation on odour measurements to comply with the authorities’ requirements for odour limit values.

Danish manufacturing company Daka, which processes animal by-products from slaughterhouses and agriculture, emits smoke from chimneys in connection with the production. Daka is consciously working to ensure that the discharge is not a nuisance to the surroundings and has among other things established biofilters and odour incinerators for air purification before their chimneys, which are up to 90 meters high.

Regular monitoring of odour emission

In order to comply with the limits for airborne odour of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Daka performs internal control of the factory smell from the production. The odour measurements are performed according to the environmental legislation and the applicable odour standard.

John Jensen, Environment and Safety Manager at Daka, says: ”We take air samples on a monthly basis according to current standards and environmental approvals on how odour conditions should be treated. It is important for us to be far below the Environmental Protection Agency’s limits for odours so that we do not cause inconvenience to our surroundings.”

”FORCE Technology advise us on air purification technologies and provide us with new knowledge in the field. We use FORCE Technology both as a sparring partner and as a source to gain new knowledge in this field. For us, it is important to have a partner who is at the forefront and is familiar with the correct practice,” says John Jensen.

Setting a mark on the odour standard

Staying ahead and knowing the practices characterises FORCE Technology’s department for Clean Air Technology. The department has many years of experience in air emission measurement and performs the function of the Danish Protection Agency’s Reference Laboratory for measurements of emissions to the air from industrial companies and energy productions plants. This also includes odour measurement.

Furthermore, FORCE Technology is deeply involved in the standardization work in the odour field and participates actively in the Danish Standard Committee S154, which is currently working on revising the European Standard for odour concentration and odour emission.  In this work, FORCE Technology contributes with technical knowledge so that odour analyses in the new standard are improved, and the uncertainty in the odour analyses can be reduced.

New odour guidelines on the way 

The Danish Odour Guidelines describe how companies in Denmark must document that odour emitted by their production is within the set limit values. The Odour Guidelines, which the Danish Environmental Agency is currently reviewing, is of great importance for Daka’s operations.

”The Odour Guidelines set a large part of the framework we have for odour sampling. Therefore, it is essential for us to keep up with what is happening in the field,” says John Jensen, who in the act as industry representative is part of the monitoring group for the Danish Odour Guidelines. Here, it is his role together with the other participants to comment on the various drafts for the guidelines so that they reflect the reality of the industry.

As a reference laboratory in the air field, FORCE Technology assists the Danish Environmental Agency with inputs for revising the Odour Guidelines. FORCE Technology provides specialist technical knowledge of the methods for air measurement and helps to elucidate specific issues such as how to measure odour from diffuse sources and how long time a sampling should take.

”The fact that FORCE Technology performs work for the Environmental Protection Agency makes us at ease as it shows that FORCE Technology is a frontrunner in the odour field, and ensures that we receive the right guidance from them,” says John Jensen.

Always up to date on legislation

Legislatively and methodologically, there is a lot to keep an eye on. That is why Daka uses FORCE Technology to keep up to date. To John Jensen it is important that FORCE Technology is actively involved in the standardisation work in the odour measurement field:

”We have chosen FORCE Technology as a partner because odour is one of their specific areas of expertise – both when it comes to knowledge of standards and professional knowledge of how to clean air for e.g. odours and how odours behave. We need a consultant who is constantly updated on the subject.”
Daka benefits greatly from FORCE Technology's experience within odour measurements.