Sniffing Out Odors

Published: May 01, 2008

ROUND ROCK, TX

When the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs program featured a segment on how to contain or neutralize the stench of dirty diapers, the star of the show was Microanalytics, a sub. of MOCON.

Host Mike Rowe explored Microanalytics' AromaTrax GCMS-Olfactometry Systems, which use analytical chemistry (combined with the human nose) to provide an accurate and efficient way to characterize and identify critical odors.

Rowe visited a local daycare center to collect samples and took them to Microanalytics for analysis. Microanalytics founder Don Wright gave Rowe a tour of the labs and let him experience how the odor ID process works.

“In this [diaper] example,” says Wright, “our goal is to help manufacturers optimize the film that is used to make garbage bags so that it forms a greater barrier to the specific odorants that are emitted by aged, dirty diapers.”

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