Odour Assessment
Odour is an issue we are frequently required to assess, particularly with respect to planning. Our odour consultants specialise in a range of odour assessment techniques. We can provide expert odour assessment services to ensure your planning application can get approval as swiftly as possible.
We specialise in commercial kitchen and waste handling odour. We also work with number of food factories where odour abatement is required. Odour impacts may be assessed when considering a planning application for an activity that may release odours or when a sensitive use is being proposed near to an existing odorous process.
Typical examples of potentially odorous activities are commercial kitchens, sewage works, intensive animal rearing, processing of animal remains solid waste management (for example composting), food industries, restaurants and some other industrial processes.
All our assessments are based on best practice guidances from the Institute of Air Quality Management and Environmental Agency.
Some of the key guidances are:
Our Services are ISO certified and accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS):
Our odour consultants use a range of monitoring techniques for monitoring surveys, amongst which the three key techniques are:
- Sniff Tests – Odour exposure inferred from measurements of intensity, frequency, duration, offensiveness.
- Field Olfactometry – Odour exposure inferred from measured concentration (Dilutions-to-Threshold, similar to (ou/m3), together with frequency, duration and offensiveness.
- Compound Analysis – Odour exposure inferred from measured concentration (µg/m3) and detection threshold, together with frequency, duration and offensiveness.
Industrial Odour
We provide a range of assessment, odour survey and management services to support a planning application, environmental permitting application or resolve a nuisance issue that may be affecting local amenity. We also advise on mitigation measures and if required prepare Mitigation Statements.
Our odour consultants have a wealth of experience across all types of industry and therefore, we can design odour sampling strategies to reflect your specific requirements. All our sampling is carried out in accordance with the European Standard for Olfactometry or other published national and international technical guidances and samples are analysed using an accredited laboratory.
Our Expertise
Odour Survey and Assessment for Commercial Kitchens/ Restaurants (London and other locations across the UK)
Assessment of residential suitability in terms of odour impact from restaurants and other commercial kitchens. The assessment also takes into account any mitigation measures that may be required as part of the building and kitchen extract design for commercial kitchens. Guidance is provided by Defra for estimating the odour risk taking into account the stack/ exhaust height, the size of the kitchen, the type of kitchen and proximity to sensitive receptors.
Industrial Sites (various location)
Our odour consultants have carried out odour survey and assessment for a range of industrial activities to ensure that operational activities are not going to adversely impact on existing sensitive receptors. We have carried out odour assessment for the following types of industrial sites:
- Waste incineration plant;
- Wastewater treatment plant;
- Steelworks and foundries;
- Asphalt production plant;
- Animal food production plant; and
- Agricultural farmlands and livestock farms.
Planning and Environmental Permitting
- A description of existing baseline conditions;
- Details of the location of receptors and their relative sensitivities to odour effects;
- A description of potential sources;
- Details of control/mitigation measures incorporated into the scheme;
- A prediction or observation (or combination of both), using appropriate assessment tools, of the likely impact and resulting effects at relevant sensitive receptors, taking into account of:
- the magnitude of any emissions;
- meteorological characteristics at the site;
- the dispersion and dilution afforded by the pathway to the receptors and the resulting magnitude;
- the sensitivity of the receptors;
- The residual impacts and their effects; and
- A conclusion on the significance of the residual effect, i.e. whether “significant” or “not significant”.
Odour Management Plan (OMP)
An OMP is a live working document that formalises and describes how odour issues will be managed on-site. An OMP forms part of the operational management system (indeed it may form part of a site’s wider Environmental Management System or Integrated Management System).
An OMP should show how odours will be managed and controlled so as to prevent or minimise the impact. As well as covering normal operations, it should anticipate and plan for abnormal events and foreseeable accidents and incidents.
OMP is not an impact assessment; it’s a mitigation/control measure plan for the site. The plan should be realistic and simple, that can be easily actioned by the site operatives.
