The Odour Unit has been providing consulting advice and odour sampling and testing services for a large coke producer, 60 km to the south of Sydney, NSW. The company has been faced with community and EPA pressure to reduce the extent of the odour impacts on the local residential area arising from the quenching of hot coke direct from the ovens.

Prior to the involvement of TOU the odorous emission from the quenching had a characteristic 'steam engine/hydrogen sulphide' character. The emission posed special difficulties in sampling and modelling, due to its intermittent nature and high steam content. Conventional 'drum sampling' methods were found to be unsuitable, and unable to produce representative samples of a quench. TOU developed its SUPADILUTA 400 syringe-sampling device to overcome the sampling difficulties.

The use of the device, together with TOU's olfactometry testing services, facilitated a quantification of the improvement in odour emissions from the plant over a two-year period to 2002. Using a combination of oxidant addition to the quench water and improved oven management the company was able to reduce odour emissions by more than ninety per cent.

TOU also carried out odour dispersion modelling for the company as a means of showing the substantial decrease in the impacted area around the plant.