• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.633-638
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• 2019

Indoor air quality underground facilities are not equipped for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and they are usually treated by diffusion methods such as ventilation. In this study, an adsorption filter was prepared using various coating methods such as carbon nano fiber (CNF) and dip coating. As a result, the adsorption performance was improved by 2 to 20 times or more compared to that of using the metal foam support. This is maybe due to the enhancement of pore distribution which was confirmed by SEM. In addition, the adsorption performance was 13.95 mg/g by adding lignin, and also an average adsorption performance of 13.25 mg/g was maintained after washing indicating that a highly durable adsorption filter material was prepared. It can be suggested that the developed adsorption filter material can be a potential solution that can fundamentally control VOCs, not via the concentration reduction of mechanical ventilation in underground facilities.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.197-205
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• 2002

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important public health problem throughout the world. Many important questions remain to be addressed in assessing exposure to these compounds. Because they are ubiquitous and highly volatile, special techniques must be applied in the analytical determination of VOCs. Personal exposure measurements are needed to evaluate the relationship between microenvironmental concentrations and actual exposures. It is also important to investigate exposure frequency, duration, and intensity, as well as personal exposure characteristics. In addition to air monitoring, biological monitoring may contribute significantly to risk assessment by allowing estimation of absorbed doses, rather than just the external exposure concentrations, which are evaluated by environmental and personal monitoring. This study was conducted to establish the analytic procedure of VOCs in air, blood, urine and exhaled breath and to evaluate the relationships among these environmental media. The subjects of this study were selected because they are occupationally exposed to high levels of VOCs. Environmental, personal, blood, urine and exhalation samples were collected. Purge ＆ trap, thermal desorber, gas chromatography and mass selective detector were used to analyze the collected samples. Analytical procedures were validated with the“break through test”, 'quot;recovery test for storage and transportation”,“method detection limit test”and“inter-laboratory QA/QC study”. Assessment of halogenated compounds indicted that they were significantly correlated to each other (p value < 0.01). In a similar manner, aromatic compounds were also correlated, except in urine sample. Linear regression was used to evaluate the relationships between personal exposures and environmental concentrations. These relationships for aromatic and halogenated are as follows: Halogen $s_{personal}$ = 3.875+0.068Halogen $s_{environmet}$, ($R^2$= .930) Aromatic $s_{personal}$ = 34217.757-31.266Aromatic $s_{environmet}$, ($R^2$= .821) Multiple regression was used to evaluate the relationship between exposures and various exposure deter-minants including, gender, duration of employment, and smoking history. The results of the regression model-ins for halogens in blood and aromatics in urine are as follows: Halogen $s_{blood}$ = 8.181+0.246Halogen $s_{personal}$+3.975Gender ($R^2$= .925), Aromatic $s_{urine}$ = 249.565+0.135Aromatic $s_{personal}$ -5.651 D.S ($R^2$ = .735), In conclusion, we have established analytic procedures for VOC measurement in biological and environmental samples and have presented data demonstrating relationships between VOCs levels in biological media and environmental samples. Abbreviation GC/MS, Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer; VOCs, Volatile Organic Compounds; OVM, Organic Vapor Monitor; TO, Toxic Organicsapor Monitor; TO, Toxic Organics.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.56-75
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• 2018

Korean Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS) have been established since the late 2001 to monitor ambient air concentrations of VOC species, which would enhance understanding photo-chemical formation of ozone and subsequently contribute to developing efficient ozone control strategies. The present study aims at identifying major VOC species and examining their trends by analyzing PAMS monitoring data collected from the year 2006 to 2016. All the 18 PAMS sites operated by the Ministry of Environment were included in the study. PAMS monitored the 56 target VOC species, which are classified into four groups, alkenes, lower alkanes ($C{\leq}3$), higher alkanes ($C{\geq}4$), aromatics. The higher alkanes and aromatics dominated over the lower alkanes and alkenes in the type 2 and 3 PAMS sites except Joongheung site. N-butane was a major alkane species, toluene was a major aromatic species and most of VOCs showed decreasing trends in these sites. On the other hand, only the alkenes showed decreasing trends at the Joongheung site in Yeosu. Major sources of abundant species such as ethane, propane, n-butane, toluene were estimated by analyzing seasonal variations, correlation with other VOC species, and emission profiles. A major source of n-butane was identified as LPG cars, while major sources of toluene varied considerably from one site to another. The lower alkanes were composed of ethane and propane, both of which showed a strong seasonal variation, low in the summer and high in the winter, indicating that a major source might be the heating by gaseous fuels. Ozone formation potentials of VOC species were evaluated by applying MIR and POCP to the measured VOC species concentrations. Toluene contributed the most to total ozone forming potentials followed by m,p-xylene for all the type 2 and 3 PAMS sites except for two sites in Yeosu-Gwangyang. Ethylene and propylene were the first and second contributors to total ozone forming potentials at Joongheung site in Yeosu.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.83-90
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• 2007

This study aimed at examining the effect of rooms decorated by eco-friendly finishing materials in a newly built wooden house on the emission of indoor air pollutions. According to the results of examination, the levels of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and styrene in all the rooms were below criteria of indoor air quality of newly-constructed houses. The levels of natural volatile organic compounds (NVOC), anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOC) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) in room R1-1 which had Hwangto wall covering on it, were relatively higher than in room phytoncide wallpaper covered R2-1. The room R2-2 where bamboo charcoal panel used for wall covering showed higher level of AVOC compared to the room R1-2. Living room R1-3 was found to contain less TVOC, compared to the other four rooms. In addition, the ratio of NVOC to TVOC in the living room was higher than in the other rooms. This seemed to be attributed to Cryptomeria Japonica the living room finished material.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.605-617
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• 2015

The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a botanical biofiltration system that combines a green interior, biofiltering, and automatic irrigation to purify indoor air pollutants according to indoor space and the size of biofilter. This study was performed to compare the stability of air flow characteristics and removal efficiency (RE) of fine dust within a wall-typed (vertical) botanical biofilter depending on humidifying cycle and to investigate RE of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by the biofilter. The biofilter used in this experiment was designed as an integral form of water metering pump, water tank, blower, humidifier, and multi-level planting space in order to be suitable for indoor space utilization. As a result, relative humidity, air temperature, and soil moisture content (SMC) within the biofilter showed stable values regardless of three different humidifying cycles operated by the metering pump. In particular, SMCs were consistently maintained in the range of 27.1-29.7% during all humidifying cycles; moreover, a humidifying cycle of operating for 15 min and pausing for 45 min showed the best horizontal linear regression (y = 0.0008x + 29.09) on SMC ($29.0{\pm}0.2%$) during 120 hour. REs for number of fine dust (PM10) and ultra-fine dust (PM2.5) particles passed through the biofilter were in the range of 82.7-89.7% and 65.4-73.0%, respectively. RE for weight of PM10 passed through the biofilter was in the range of 58.1-78.9%, depending on humidifying cycle. REs of xylene, ethyl benzene, total VOCs (TVOCs), and toluene passed through the biofilter were in the range of 71.3-75.5%, while REs of benzene and formaldehyde (HCHO) passed through the biofilter were 39.7% and 44.9%, respectively. Hence, it was confirmed that the wall-typed botanical biofilter suitable for indoor plants was very effective for indoor air purification.