Volatility Distribution of Organic Compounds in Sewage Incineration Emissions

Intermediate volatility and semivolatile organic compounds (IVOC/SVOC) are important precursors of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) while SVOC is an important contributor to primary organic aerosol (POA). However, combustion emissions data for volatility classes are limited. This study reports the gas and particle emissions that were sampled with various dilution factors from a sewage sludge incinerator burning fuel oil. Volatility distributions were determined using measurements from online mass spectrometry and offline organic compound analyses. In the low volatility organic compound (LVOC) to IVOC range, volatility bins with organic saturation concentrations of 10-100 μg m^-3 were most abundant, which was due to organic acids generated from sludge burning. Organic aerosol (OA) emission factors (EF_OA) increased 1.4 times after cooling to ambient temperatures in comparison to those of the samples from the hot stack. Upon further isothermal dilution at 25 °C, the EF_OA decreased while organic gas phase EFs increased with increasing dilution. Phase partitioning in volatility bins with saturation concentrations of 10-100 μg m^-3 was sensitive to isothermal dilution that influenced the EFs. Therefore, gas- and particle-phase measurements alone cannot constrain EFs for these volatility classes. Low dilution factors may overestimate the particle phase and underestimate the gas phase EFs compared with real-world emission conditions.