Assessing and correlating analytical and human sensory data from virgin polyolefins and regrinds to predict their odor properties
Haug H, Catruc Z, Stock M, Sauerwald T, Grasskamp AT (2025)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
Book Volume: 222
Article Number: 108479
DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108479
Abstract
Quality assurance of polyolefin regrinds requires assessment and control of their odor properties. Aiming to develop efficient tools for this purpose, we applied analytical and sensory methods to investigate odor properties in 51 virgin and recycled plastics, primarily polypropylene. We report on the odor characteristics of polyolefin materials with a differentiation between virgin and post-consumer recycled material, the latter exhibiting higher odor intensities. Gas chromatography combined with software-based odorant detection facilitated a comparison of samples and indicated higher odorant loads in regrinds. Chemometric tools using sensory and analytical datasets classified samples from virgin and PCR material with prediction accuracies of 97.2–100 %. The prediction of overall odor intensity from analytical data using a support vector machine model delivered root mean square errors of 0.46 (training) and 0.22 (test). This represents a crucial step towards instrumental measurement for odor monitoring in plastics, especially in view of the increasing reuse of post-consumer materials.
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Haug, H., Catruc, Z., Stock, M., Sauerwald, T., & Grasskamp, A.T. (2025). Assessing and correlating analytical and human sensory data from virgin polyolefins and regrinds to predict their odor properties. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108479
MLA:
Haug, Helen, et al. "Assessing and correlating analytical and human sensory data from virgin polyolefins and regrinds to predict their odor properties." Resources Conservation and Recycling 222 (2025).
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