Measurement report: Ambient volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution in urban Beijing: characteristics, sources, and implications for pollution control

Abstract

The increasing ozone (O 3 ) pollution and high fraction of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in fine particle mass has highlighted the importance of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air pollution control. In this work, four intensive field measurements of VOCs during winter of 2018 (from 1 December 2018 to 17 January 2019), spring (15 April to 27 May), summer (17 June to 13 July), and autumn (22 September to 27 November) of 2019 were conducted at an urban site in Beijing to characterize VOC sources and their contributions to air pollution. The total mixing ratio of the 95 quantified VOCs (TVOC) observed in this study ranged from 5.5-118.7 ppbv with the mean value of 34.9 ppbv. Alkanes, OVOCs, and halocarbons were the dominant chemical groups, accounting for 75 %-81 % of the TVOC across the sampling months. The molar ratios of VOCs to NO x indicated that O 3 formation was limited by VOCs during the whole sampling period. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis showed that diesel vehicle exhaust, gasoline vehicle exhaust, and industrial emissions were the main VOC sources during both the O 3 -polluted and PM 2.5 -polluted months. On the basis of O 3 formation impact, VOCs from fuel evaporation and diesel exhaust, particularly toluene, xylenes, trans-2-butene, acrolein, methyl methacrylate, vinyl acetate, 1-butene, and 1-hexene, were the main contributors, illustrating the necessity of conducting emission controls on these pollution sources and species to alleviate O 3 pollution. Instead, VOCs from diesel exhaust as well as coal and biomass combustion were found to be the dominant contributors to secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP), particularly the VOC species of toluene, 1-hexene, xylenes, ethylbenzene, and styrene, and top priority should be given to these for the alleviation of haze pollution. This study provides insights for the government to formulate effective VOC control measures for air pollution in Beijing.

An Innovative Method for BTEX Emission Inventory and Development of Mitigation Measures in Developing Countries—A Case Study: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

“…For example, Rad et al (2014) indicated transportation and industry were the primary pollution sources of BTEX in the metropolitan city of Iran [ 31 ]. Cui et al (2012) highlighted the fuel use and diesel exhaust sources of air pollution in Beijing, China [ 32 ]. In Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), motorcycles contributed the most to the traffic fleet [ 33 ].…”

Distribution of volatile organic compounds around Ulsan Industrial Complexes and its possible health impact on the residents; a cross-sectional study

“…Pinthong et al used Positive Matrix Factorization(PMF) to evaluate the source of VOCs and showed that industrial processes and petrochemical industries were the major sources of the VOCs [6]. A study from Beijing also revealed that the main source of VOCs is the vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions [13].…”

Modeling the Formation of Organic Compounds across Full Volatility Ranges and Their Contribution to Nanoparticle Growth in a Polluted Atmosphere

“…The model configuration is consistent with that of Zheng et al SOAALK represents all alkanes that can generate SOA, mainly composed of C 8 and larger linear or branched alkanes. We assign SOAALK concentration to the concentration of C 8 -alkanes to C 12 -alkanes based on the ratio (0.32, 0.14, 0.08, 0.10, and 0.36) of long-chain alkane concentration measured offline in Beijing (also a polluted urban area) …”

“…We assign SOAALK concentration to the concentration of C 8 -alkanes to C 12 -alkanes based on the ratio (0.32, 0.14, 0.08, 0.10, and 0.36) of long-chain alkane concentration measured offline in Beijing (also a polluted urban area). 67 Figure S5 illustrates the daily time evolution of the main input data for all of the NPF days. The time resolution for different data may vary from 5 min to an hour.…”