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Odor emission chemistry for mushroom substrate?

Article Excerpt
Understanding more about the compounds involved in odor plumes from mushroom substrate farms should help farmers and neighbors work toward reducing the impacts of air emissions. This article presents information about selected chemicals found in odor plumes originating from a substrate farm. The farm, located in Chester County, PA, has aerated bunkers as well as an open wharf with substrate ricks. Various odor samples were taken in 2007 and 2008. In the context of previous work by the second author, these samples were analyzed to find significant impact compounds from the more than 100 compounds that may be emitted from the process of making mushroom substrate.

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Literature About Odors

Scientific reports about odors from mushroom substrate have included reports from Australia where Miller and Macauley, 1988, listed 14 compounds. Also, Labance, S.E., et al., 2006, reported odor panel results comparing different composting methods. Beyer, et al., 2008, have written an odor management guide booklet to help substrate farmers make choices that reduce odorous air emissions. Odor chemistry has been studied for livestock sources (Wright, et al. 2005)

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Methods for Odor Compound Observation

Multidimensional Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry-Olfactometry: MDGC-MS-Olfactometry (MDCC-MS-O) is an integrated approach combining multidimensional GC separation techniques, parallel olfactory detection by a human sensory investigator and conventional electronic detection by mass spectrometry (Wright et al, 1997). A commercial, integrated AromaTrax[TM]...

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