Design of an efficient electronic nose system for odour analysis and assessment

This paper presents an efficient electronic nose (e-nose) system, named “NOS.E”, for odour analysis and assessment. In addition to the reliable hardware and software designs, an airflow intake system is implemented to ensure the precise odour analysis procedure in the NOS.E system. Additionally, a particular control logic was introduced to improve the test efficiency of the NOS.E by reducing operation time. Furthermore, the fault detection and alarming design can generate a high-reliability performance by constantly monitoring its working status. To evaluate the performance of the NOS.E, three types of alcohols were tested by the NOS.E and compared to data collected by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS). The results indicate that the NOS.E can successfully distinguish three different alcohols with high efficiency and low cost and has the potential to be a universal odour analysis platform implemented in various applications.