Volatile organic compounds produced during the aerobic biological processing of municipal solid waste in a pilot plant

Results showed uniformity in the composition of the air in the solid waste samples, air sampled during the process and condensed water, indicating a matrix-derived origin of these compounds. Leachates, however, contained substances with a quite different molecular structure from the compounds identified in the gaseous fraction. Most of the substances in the gaseous effluent had a hydrocarbon-like structure, mainly terpenoids. The odour produced and detected through olfactometry agreed with GC-MS analyses. This was true above all for terpenes.