With a whiff, 'e-nose' can sense fine whisky
Researchers have developed an e-nose that can distinguish different types
of whisky

Date:
April 6, 2022
Source:
University of Technology Sydney
Summary:
Researchers have developed an e-nose that can distinguish different
types of whisky.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scotch or Irish, single malt or blended? While a whisky enthusiast might
be able to distinguish the good stuff from run-of-the-mill by smell alone,
most tipplers rely on the label, black or otherwise.


========================================================================== Whisky is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages worldwide and,
with some high-end brands fetching five or six figures, it's also a
favourite target for fraud.

To combat this, researchers have developed an electronic nose (e-nose)
that can distinguish between different brands, origins, and styles by "sniffing" the liquor.

The project was led by Associate Professor Steven Su with PhD students
Wentian Zhang and Taoping Liu, from the University of Technology Sydney
(UTS), in collaboration with chemists Professor Shari Forbes and Dr
Maiken Ueland.

"Up until now, detecting the differences between whiskies has required
either a trained whisky connoisseur, who might still get it wrong, or
complex and time- consuming chemical analysis by scientists in a lab,
said Associate Professor Su.

"So to have a rapid, easy to use, real-time assessment of whisky to
identify the quality, and uncover any adulteration or fraud, could be
very beneficial for both high-end wholesalers and purchasers," he said.



==========================================================================
The team used a new e-nose prototype (called NOS.E), developed at UTS,
to identify the differences between six whiskies by their brand names,
regions, and styles in less than four minutes.

The experiment used samples of three blended malts and three single malt whiskeys, including Johnnie Walker red and black label whiskey, Ardberg,
Chivas Regal and a Macallan's 12-year-old whisky.

The study, recently published in the journal IEEE Sensors, showed the
e-nose reached 100% accuracy for detecting the region, 96.15% accuracy
for brand name and 92.31% accuracy for style.

NOS.E is designed to mimic the human olfactory system, using eight gas
sensors to detect odours in a vial of whisky. The sensor array generates
the unique signal matrix according to the different odour molecules it
comes into contact with.

The e-nose was tested and displayed at the CEBIT Australia
tradeshow. Image: UTS It then sends the data to a computer for
analysis, with a machine learning algorithm trained to recognise whisky characteristics.

The researchers confirmed the NOS.E findings using state-of-the-art lab
tests on the whisky samples: time-of-flight mass spectrometry paired
with two- dimensional gas chromatography, which yielded similar results.

The technology has applications not only in the alcohol industry, with beverages such as wine and cognac as well as whisky, but also for other products that are subject to counterfeiting such as high-end perfume.

The e-nose technology has also been used to detect illegal animal parts
sold on the black market, such as black rhino horns, and has great
potential for health applications and disease detection.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Technology_Sydney. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Wentian Zhang, Taoping Liu, Amber Brown, Maiken Ueland, Shari
L. Forbes,
Steven Weidong Su. The Use of Electronic Nose for the Classification
of Blended and Single Malt Scotch Whisky. IEEE Sensors Journal,
2022; 22 (7): 7015 DOI: 10.1109/jsen.2022.3147185 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220406101734.htm

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