Man who invented natural gas smell wins 'dull' award

An 85-year-old scientist who invented the smell that is added to natural gas has received a lifetime achievement award.

Gloucestershire-based engineer Peter Hansen was asked by a company to produce a smell to add to gas, which is otherwise odourless.

The scent he created was added at Milford Haven refineries and means that people can "smell" gas leaks.

He has now received the inaugural lifetime achievement award from The Dull Man's Podcast, which is produced by a team from Gloucestershire.

"I had to look for the nastiest smell I could think of," Mr Hansen said. "That was the choice. I can't describe the smell, it's just horrible."

Demitris Deech, from the podcast, who interviewed Mr Hansen in one episode, said: "Peter was very popular and then we had some feedback asking, 'Has he won an award? Has he got an MBE? Has he been knighted? Has he got a Nobel Prize?'

"None of that – and so we thought we'll invent a prize for him, which is The Dull Man's Podcast award."

Mr Hansen said: "I have discussed my award with my family and I was surprised a lot of people don't realise that natural gas is odourless."

Mr Hansen said that, in the 1970s, he had a phone call from a "gentleman in Newport", in south Wales, asking him to develop a smell for a natural gas company.

"Natural gas had just entered the country," Mr Hansen said.

"The pipeline was being built across to Newport steel works and up towards the Midlands to be distributed across the country.

"They were looking for a smell they could inject into the gas. They were serious and it was important and urgent."

After sending the gas company samples of his smell substance from his own new business, Mr Hansen faced another problem.

"The problem was they wanted 40,000 litres delivered in two months," he said.

"I was a fresh new company, that would take me a year to produce."

For a while, he went into production with a friend from Bristol – but his friend's company went bust so he decided to sell the formula to the gas company.

"Because I was in my 30s, I wasn't very business wise," Mr Hansen said. "I should have tied something up in writing but it was all done on trust.

"But I had the kudos that I delivered the smell and that was enough for me."

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