Abstract
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured at six sites in Beijing in August, 2004. Up to 148 VOC species, including C3 to C12 alkanes, C3 to C11 alkenes, C6 to C12 aromatics, and halogenated hydrocarbons, were quantified. Although the concentrations differed at the sites, the chemical compositions were similar, except for the Tongzhou site where aromatics were significantly high in the air. Based on the source profiles measured from previous studies, the source apportionment of ambient VOCs was preformed by deploying the chemical mass balance (CMB) model. The results show that urban VOCs are predominant from mobile source emissions, which contribute more than 50% of the VOCs (in mass concentrations) to ambient air at most sites. Other important sources are gasoline evaporation, painting, and solvents. The exception is at the Tongzhou site where vehicle exhaust, painting, and solvents have about equal contribution, around 35% of the ambient VOC concentration. As the receptor model is not valid for deriving the sources of reactive species, such as isoprene and 1,3-butadiene, other methodologies need to be further explored.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lin X, Trainer M, Liu S C. On the nonlinearity of the tropospheric ozone production. J Geophys Res, 1988, 93: 15879–15888
Xu J, Zhang Y H. Process analysis of O3 formation in summer at Beijing. Acta Sci Circumst, 2006, 26(6): 973–980 (in Chinese)
Akimoto H. Global air quality and pollution. Science, 2003, 302: 1716–1719
Blake D, Sherwood F. Urban leakage of LPG and its impact on Mexico air quality. Science, 1995, 269: 953–956
Ryerson T B, Trainer M, Angevine W M. Effect of petrochemical industrial emissions of reactive alkenes and NOx on tropospheric ozone formation in Houston, Texas. J Geophys Res, 2003, 108(D8): 4249
Chameides W L, Lindsay R W, Richardson J L, Kiang C S. The role of biogenic hydrocarbons in urban photochemical smog: Atlanta as a case study. Science, 1988, 241: 1473–1475
Shao M, Tang X Y, Zhang Y H, Li W J. Air and surface water pollution of city clusters in China: Current situation and challenges. Front Ecol Environ, 2006, 7(4): 353–361
Zhang J, Shao M, Su F. Study on composition of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Beijing City. Res Environ Sci, 2004, 17(5): 1–5 (in Chinese)
Liu Y, Shao M, Zhang J, Fu L L, Lu S H. Distribution and source apportionment of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Beijing City, China. J Environ Sci Health, 2005, 40: 1843–1860
Tsujino Y, Kuwata K. Sensitive flame ionization detector for the determination of traces of atmospheric hydrocarbons by capillary gas chromatography. J Chromatogr A, 1993, 642: 383–388
Hsieh C C, Tsai J H. VOC concentration characteristics in Southern Taiwan. Chemosphere, 2003, 50: 545–556
Fujita E M, Watson J G, Chow J C, Lu Z. Validation of the chemical mass balance receptor model applied to hydrocarbon source apportionment in the Southern California air study. Environ Sci Technol, 1994, 28(9): 1633–1649
Fu L L, Shao M, Liu Y, Liu Y, Lu S H, Tang D G. Tunnel experiment on speciated emission factors of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from vehicles. Acta Sci Circumst, 2005, 25(7): 879–885 (in Chinese)
Curren K C, Dann T F, Wang D K. Ambient air 1,3-butadiene concentrations in Canada (1995–2003): Seasonal, day of week variations, trends and source influences. Atmos Environ, 2006, (40): 170–181
Fujita E M. Hydrocarbon source apportionment for the 1996 Paso del Norte Ozone study. Sci Total Environ, 2001, 276: 171–184
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lu, S., Liu, Y., Shao, M. et al. Chemical speciation and anthropogenic sources of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during summer in Beijing, 2004. Front.Environ.Sci.Eng.China 1, 147–152 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-007-0026-0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-007-0026-0