[Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Using Mobile Monitoring Around the Industrial Parks in the...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play important roles in the formation of ozone and fine particles in the troposphere. Industrial parks emit significant amounts of VOCs in China, while few studies have characterized them. In the present study, a mobile platform was employed to measure the levels and composition VOCs around industrial parks in the Yangzte River Delta region. The average concentration of VOCs ranged from 39 μg·m^-3 (5% percentile) to 533 μg·m^-3 (95% percentile) with an average of 183 μg·m^-3, which was three times that of ambient concentrations. Maximum VOC concentrations ranged from 307 μg·m^-3 (5% percentile) to 12006 μg·m^-3 (95% percentile) with an average of 2812 μg·m^-3. The frequency of abnormal peak values was as high as 64% across all the industrial parks, of which toluene (32%), xylene (18%), benzene (9%), and>C9 aromatics (19%) were the most common species. Differences in VOC characteristics were observed among the different types of industrial parks. Specifically, highest concentrations of VOCs were observed in textile industrial parks followed by chemical, painting, and petrochemical industrial parks, and VOC concentrations in electronics industrial parks were the lowest. Importantly, species measured using the mobile platform only contributed~50% of VOCs present in ambient samples, indicating that the concentrations of VOCs in the industrial parks were underestimated overall. These results can inform measures to control VOC pollution in industrial parks in China.