Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil. During the palm oil mill
process, it will release an enormous amount of palm oil mill effluent which becomes
a major odour problem. There are varieties of methods in managing the malodour
such as biofilter, but those methods are expensive and high-maintenance. As the
alternative, the setback distance method can be used as this approach is low-cost and
effective. This research was carried out to verify the performance of three different
setback distance methods: 1) in-field monitoring using Olfactometer, 2) the
CALPUFF model and 3) the Gaussian plume model calculation. Since no research
has compared the three methods, this study examined the suitability to be used in
Malaysia and the effectiveness of the methods. Results show that the proper setback
distances were 1.3 km by using in-field monitoring, 1.2 km by using CALPUFF
model and 0.5 by using the Gaussian plume model calculation. Research shows that
there a huge different in odour concentration value at the surrounding area from
those methods with for 385 OU m–3 in-field monitoring, 6.1 OU m–3 for dispersion
model and 81 OU m–3 for Gaussian plume model calculation. The differences was
cause by the different process in running the method and also the needed data. This
research can recommend a proper way to build a setback distance and setback
distance value to reduce odour nuisance in th