Shimadzu Corporation

Keiso Kawamoto

Motoo Kinoshita

Kunihiko Okubo

Hiroshi Nakano

Jun-ichi Kita

Ryutaro Oda

Hisamitsu Akamaru

Mitsuyoshi Yoshii

An odor measuring device has a collector tube containing an adsorbent which adsorbs sample components with odor at normal temperatures and desorbs them when heated. Flow routes for a sample gas containing sample components to be detected and an inactive gas are connected through valves to this collector tube. Initially, a sample gas containing sample components with odor is introduced into the collector tube at normal temperature such that the sample components to be detected are adsorbed to the adsorbent. Thereafter, the valves are switched such that the inactive gas is introduced into the collector tube while its temperature is increased by a heater, causing the sample components to be desorbed into the inactive gas and to be transported into an odor sensor. If odor sensors requiring oxygen for detection are used, an oxygen-containing gas such as air is mixed into the inactive gas after the latter has passed through the collector tube such that deterioration of the adsorbent by oxidation can be prevented.

Devices and methods for measuring odor

A device for measurement of an odor component in a sample gas prepares many target gases to be actually measured by a plurality of sensors with different response characteristics, each containing the odor component at a different concentration. Detection signals from these sensors are analyzed by a method of multivariate analysis such as the principal component analysis, and the odor component is characterized on the basis of such an analysis. For preparing the target gases, the sample gas containing the odor component is passed through a collector tube containing an adsorbent which adsorbs this odor component at normal and subnormal temperature and desorbs it when heated. After a specified amount of the odor component is adsorbed to the adsorbent, the tube is heated and an inert gas serving as carrier gas is passed through such that the desorbed odor component is carried to the detectors as a target gas. The concentration of the odor component in such a target gas is controlled by the manner of flow of the carrier gas. In order to obtain a dependable result from such an analysis, response characteristics of each of the sensors may be analyzed by examining the relationship between the outputted detection signal and the concentration of the odor component in the target gas. Only those of the sensors which show a monotonically varying or linear response characteristics may be considered trustworthy and only the detection signals from such trustworthy detectors may be used for the analysis.

Devices for measuring gases with odors

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Keiso Kawamoto