• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.503-511
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• 2009

VOC mixture was fed to a trickle bed air biofilter (TBAB) with step-change in influent mixture concentrations from 50 ppmv to 1,000 ppmv, corresponding to loadings of $5.7\;g/m^3/hr$ to $114.1\;g/m^3/hr$. VOC mixture was an equimolar ratio of two aromatic VOCs, i.e., toluene and styrene, and two oxygenated VOCs, i.e., methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). The TBAB system employed backwashing as biomass control. The experimental results showed that a critical loading rate for VOC mixture removal was determined to be about $60\;g/m^3/hr$, and critical loading rates for individual VOCs in the mixture were different. Specifically, toluene content in the mixture played a major role in the biofilter overall performance. As VOC mixture was fed beyond the critical loading rate, reacclimation of the biofilter to reach the 99% removal efficiency following backwashing was delayed, which was a critical factor in the biofilter performance. In the mass balance analysis, 63.8% of the carbon equivalent in VOCs removal was used for $CO_2$ production during the experimental runs. The 82.6% nitrogen utilized in the biofilter was contributed to microbial cell synthesis. The obtained results were compared against consistently high efficient performance of TBAB for VOC mixture by employing backwashing as biomass control.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.415-423
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• 2007

This study assessed the characteristic of BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene) concentration ratios of industrial emission sources and the neighborhoods of industrial area, fuel such as gasoline, light oil, LPG, and similar gasoline, and ambient air in Daegu. The BTEX in aromatic compounds was the most abundant VOC in Daegu. The BTEX ratios were (0.2:2.6:1.0:1.8) for the neighborhoods of industrial area, (2.6:11.3:1.0:1.2) for residential area, (2.2:11.0:1.0:1.6) for commercial area, (1.0:14.9:1.0:1.3) for industrial area, and (0.2:2.6:1.0:1.8) for the neighborhoods of industrial area. Average BTEX ratios in Daegu were B/T ratio (0.1), B/EB ratio (1.5), B/X ratio (1.1), T/EB ratio (12.6), T/X ratio (10), EB/X ratio (0.7), Expecially, B/T ratio in Daegu was similar as the other cities, Bangkok, Manila, and Hongkong. Comparing other cities with B/T ratio, the main sources of VOC were vehicular exhaust and emission of industrial facilities. Furthermore, BTEX correlation were evaluated at the emission sources and regional areas. Results showed that correlation coefficient values of emission sources, fuels and neighborhood of industry were significant magnitude above 0.65(p<0.01). Also, there showed highly significant correlations among BTEX. Calculated correlation coefficients of ambient air sampling sites were $0.61{\sim}0.954$ for commercial /residential area and $0.613{\sim}0.998$ for industrial area. However, they showed different correlation between commercial/residental area and industrial area. It implied that the emission sources were different from each area.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.772-790
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• 2011

In this paper, we use the HDDM (High-order Decoupled Direct Method)-driven ozone sensitivity to predict change in ozone concentrations in response to domain-wide $NO_x$(Oxides of Nitrogen) and VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emission controls over the Seoul Metropolitan Area during June 11~19, 2007. In order to validate the applicability of HDDM to $NO_x$ and VOC control scenarios, the HDDM results are compared to Brute Force Method (BFM). For VOC controls, NME (Normalized Mean Error) between BFM and HDDM remains less than 2% until the domain-wide VOC emissions are reduced by 80%. The NME for a 40% reduction in the domain-wide $NO_x$ emissions is less than 5% but increases abruptly after further reductions in the $NO_x$ emissions (i.e., 80% reduction). The results indicates that it may be inaccurate to use ozone sensitivity coefficients estimated at a given base emission condition in predicting ozone after $NO_x$ reductions larger than ~50% of the domain total in the SMA. Therefore, HDDM application on piecewise emissions is desirable to predict ozone response to emission controls with accuracy (i.e., truck emissions rather than the domain total). For computational efficiency, HDDM shows approximately 30% faster than the BFM sensitivity approach.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.767-778
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• 2006

This study was carried out to evaluate the temporal variations of VOCs at an urban site, and to compare the concentrations of VOCs at an urban site in Daegu with those at a suburban site in Gyeongsan. Three hourly VOC samples in the ambient air were collected using a sequential tube sampler (STS 25, Perkin Elmer) throughout two weeks during May and July representing spring and summer seasons, respectively. The VOC concentrations were determined by an automatic thermal desorption apparatus with GC/MS analysis. A total of 12 VOCs of environmental concern were determined, which are chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene, toluene, tetra-chloroethylene, ethylbenzene, m+p-xylenes, o-xylene, styrene, 1,3,5- and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzenes. Among 12 target VOCs, the most abundant compound appeared to be toluene, being followed by xylenes. The mean concentrations at the urbn site were 1.2 pub for benzene and 20.4 ppb for toluene (n=221) while the mean levels at the suburban site were 0.9 ppb and 4.3 ppb for benzene and toluene (n=96), respectively. The urban site concentrations were typically several-fold higher than those measured at the suburban site. It was found that general trends of VOC levels were significantly dependent on traffic conditions at the sampling site since VOC concentrations were at their maximum during rush hours, i.e. $9{\sim}12a.m$ and $6{\sim}9p.m$. Statistical investigations were conducted to investigate any significant relationships between VOC concentrations and affecting factors. Calculated correlation coefficients among VOCs were positively significant at a level of 0.05 in most cases. Increased concentrations of toluene in the urban site were estimated to reflect the effect of large industrial sources, mainly from textile industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.254-259
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• 2012

The discharge characteristics of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from seven wastewater treatment plants and two industry drains at Nakdong River basin were investigated. Four Sampling campaigns were conducted between May 2008 and November 2008, and tested for 17 VOCs. As results, eight VOCs were detected at some sampling sites, but their concentration levels were low; 0.19~3.41 ${\mu}g/L$, dependent on each sampling location and substance. However, proper management plans such as supervising and monitoring systems for VOCs are needed to control those pollutants since VOCs might affect human health as well as aquatic ecosystems with extremely low concentration levels.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.952-959
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• 2012

The photocatalytic reactor was designed to have improved efficiency by enhancing a light intensity of photocatalytic reactor using a reflector coated on the surface at the outer radius of annular shaped photocatalytic reactor. The improved photocatalytic reactor performed to treat waste air containing malodor and VOC with the enhanced light intensity, of which the effect on their removal efficiency was investigated. The intensities of illumination of the improved photocatalytic reactor filled with porous silica-based media and nonporous glass bead media carrying photocatalyst were observed to increase by 28.5% and 30.1%, respectively, compared to those of photocatalytic reactor without any reflector. Using the improved photocatalytic reactor filled with porous silica-based media and nonporous glass bead media carrying photocatalyst, the removal efficiencies were enhanced by 2~3% and insignificantly, respectively. The removal efficiencies of the optimized photocatalytic reactor with reflectors, filled with porous silica-based media carrying photocatalyst, were observed to increase by 26% and 60%, compared to those of photocatalytic reactor (i.e., 19% and 53%), without any reflector, filled with nonporous glass bead media carrying photocatalyst, for hydrogen sulfide and toluene, respectively. The roughness of used reflector surface was measured to be ca. four times as big as that of a commercial mirror. However, their removal efficiencies are expected to be enhanced by increasing an light intensity resulting from lowering the roughness of used reflector coated on the improved photocatalytic reactor in the future.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2008

This study was used particleboard with urea-formaldehyde resin and cross linking vinyl resin. Manufactured particleboard had high cross linking vinyl resin content that internal bonding strength was low value but flexural strength was increased. For emission test of particleboard using VOC Analyzer, it was confirmed that more cross linking vinyl resin had reduced 4 volatile organic compounds (Toluene, Ethylbenzen, Xylene, Styrene) but also TVOC (Total VOC), 5 VOCs (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzen, Xylene, Styrene) and formaldehyde emissions from manufactured particleboard were also lower emission factor than particleboard with only urea formaldehyde resin.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.134-139
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• 2013

VOCs such as formaldehyde and benzene in a control chamber were adsorbed onto gypsum incorporating oyster shell powder, which was solidified and dried. VOC was first exposed in air and then gypsum mortar was placed in the chamber for 180 min for adsorption. The mortar was prepared with 0, 10, 30, and 50% of oyster shell powder. Two initial concentrations of VOCs including formaldehyde were $27.7{\sim}28.5mg/m^3$ or $175{\sim}150{\mu}g/m^3$. We found out that the initial concentrations did not seem to make any difference in adsorption performance but higher oyster content strongly led to higher adsorption. We used a convection-diffusion-adsorption model to compare the experiment. The model which considers diffusion coefficients of adsorbates and affinity of the adsorbents well represented the experimental data with a fair agreement.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.113-126
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• 2002

This study was carried out to evaluate the temporal (daily, weekly, and seasonal) variations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentrations at a road-side site in a heavy-traffic central area of Metropolitan Taegu. Ambient air sampling was undertaken continuously for 14 consecutive days in each of four seasons from the spring of 1999 to the winter of 2000. The VOC samples were collected using adsorbent tubes, and were determined by thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS analysis. A total of 10 aromatic VOCs of environmental concern were determined, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m＋p-xylenes, styrene, o-xylene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, and naphthalene. Among 10 target VOCs, the most abundant compounds appeared to be toluene (1.5 ∼ 102 ppb) and xylenes (0.1 ∼ 114 ppb), while benzene levels were in the range of 0.3 ∼6 ppb. It was found that the general trends of VOC levels were significantly dependent on traffic conditions at the sampling site since VOC concentrations were at their maximum during rush hours (AM 7∼9 and PM 7 ∼9). However, some VOCs such as toluene, xylenes, and ethylbenzene were likely to be affected by a number of unknown sources other than vehicle exhaust, being attributed to the use of paints, and/or the evaporation of solvents used nearby the sampling site. In some instances, extremely high concentrations were found for these compounds, which can not be explained solely by the impact of vehicle exhaust. The results of this study may be useful for estimating the relative importance of different emission sources in large urban areas. Finally, it was suggested that the median value might be more desirable than the arithmetic mean as a representative value for the VOC data group, since the cumulative probability distribution (n=658) does not follow the normal distribution pattern.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2017

For the quantitative analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOC), the use of a proper solvent is crucial to reduce the chance of biased results or effect of interference either in direct analysis by a gas chromatograph (GC) or with thermal desorption analysis due to matrix effects, e.g., the existence of a broad solvent peak tailing that overlaps early eluters. In this work, the relative performance of different solvents has been evaluated using standards containing 19 VOCs in three different solvents (methanol, pentane, and hexane). Comparison of the response factor of the detected VOCs confirms their means for methanol and hexane higher than that of pentane by 84% and 27%, respectively. In light of the solvent vapor pressure at the initial GC column temperature ($35^{\circ}C$), the enhanced sensitivity in methanol suggests the potential role of solvent vapor expansion in the hot injector (split ON) which leads to solvent trapping on the column. In contrast, if the recurrent relationships between homologues were evaluated using an effective carbon number (ECN) additivity approach, the comparability assessed in terms of percent difference improved on the order of methanol (26.5%), hexane (6.73%), and pentane (5.24%). As such, the relative performance of GC can be affected considerably in the direct injection-based analysis of VOC due to the selection of solvent.