• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.489-495
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• 2004

In this article, various aspects of errors involved in the measurement of TVOC were examined as part of study to develop the indoor pollution indices. For this purpose, TVOC term was computed by two different calibration approaches, i.e., by assuming all VOC are detected in the same manner as toluene and by summing up as many individual VOC as possible. The results of our study indicate that the common, toluene-based method suffers from errors inherent in the development of such theory. Consequently, it is concluded that more research efforts have to be directed to the improvement of such concept as TVOC.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.580-602
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• 2011

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the 2007 CAPSS (Clean Air Protection Supporting System) emissions inventory are chemically speciated for the SAPRC99 (Statewide Air Pollution Research Center 99) mechanism, following the Source Classification Code (SCC) matching method to borrow the U.S.EPA's chemical speciation profiles. CMAQ simulations with High-order Direct Decoupled Method (HDDM) are in turn applied to evaluate uncertainty in the method by comparing the simulated model VOC species to the observations in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) for a 2007 June episode. Simulations under-predicted ALK1 to ALK4 in SAPRC99 by a factor of 2 to 5 and over-predicted ALK5 by a factor of 7.5 while ARO1, ARO2, OLE1, and ethylene (ETH) are comparable to the observations, showing relative difference by 10 to 30%. OLE2 emissions are roughly 4 times overestimated. Emission rates for individual VOC model species are revised referring to the ratio of simulated to observed concentrations. Impact of the VOC emission changes on the overall ozone prediction was insignificant for the days of which 1-hr maximum ozone are lower than 100 ppb. However, simulations showed ozone difference by 5 to 10 ppb when high ozone above 120 ppb was observed in the vicinity of Seoul. This result suggests that evaluations on individual model VOC emissions be necessary to lead ozone control plans to the right direction. Moreover, the simulated ratios of ARO1 and ARO2 to $NO_x$ are roughly 50% lower than the observed ones, which imply that adjustment in $NO_x$ and VOC emission rates may be required to mimic the real VOC/$NO_x$ condition over the area.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.487-495
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• 2005

Recently, due to the airtightness of buildings or the misuse of building materials, we have been witness SHS (Sick House Syndrome) which can have bad influences on the resident in an existing apartment house as well as newly constructed apartment house start to attract public attention. As a result of this situation, we went to restrict the TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compound) and formaldehyde. But these guidelines concentrated on only TVOC although TVOC are consist of many individual VOC. Therefore, in this study, we will look about concentration change of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) by using Mock-up test. As result of test, the concentration of four individual VOC (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Styrene) showed quitely low level after 7 days. On the other hand the concentration of Xylene and formaldehyde showed low level after 14 days.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.734-745
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• 2011

In this article, we reviewed the monitoring status of hazardous VOC in ambinet air in Korea and some developed countries such as USA, Japan, and UK. In many countries, two types of VOC monitoring stations are being operated, i.e., for hazardous VOC and photochemical VOC. Each country has different target VOC but all includes benzene. Korea, Japan, and UK have a national ambient air quality standard for benzene, but no national standard has been established in the USA. For sampling of the hazardous VOC, the adsorbent method is adopted in Korea and UK, while the canister method is used in the USA. Both of adsorbent and canister methods are used in Japan. USA and UK have only non-automatic method to measure the hazardous VOC, and the individual samples are being sent to their national laboratories for integrated analysis. On the other hand, Korea and Japan have automatic and nonautomatic methods to measure the hazardous VOC. Local governments or regional environmental agencies in Korea and Japan have the authorization for the sampling and analysis of VOC. According to a field study to evaluate the performance of automatic VOC monitoring system, controlling the moisture in the air sample was identified as the most important problem. However, careful attention must be given to using a moisture removing device such as Nafyon dryer, because of unexpected artifacts formation. In order to have reliable data, it is highly recommended not only to use internal standards, but to use appropriate hydrophobic adsorbents as a cold trap in any automatic on-line VOC monitoring system.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1273-1283
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• 2015

In present study, the temporal characteristics of nine selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including four alcohol, 2 aldehyde, and 3 ketone compounds, in high-stories urban apartments over a 2-y period were investigated. The indoor VOC concentrations had generally a decreasing trend over the 2-y follow-up period. For examples, the 2E1H indoor concentration decreased from $10.8{\mu}g/m^3$ for the first two months to $5.1{\mu}g/m^3$ for the last two months. In addition, the DCA and ACT indoor concentrations decreased from 5.0 and $14{\mu}g/m^3$ for the first two months to 2.2 and $6.4{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively, for the last two months. The indoor-to outdoor concentration ratios over the 2-y period were much greater than 1, indicating that indoor VOC concentrations were higher than the outdoor VOC concentrations. Similar to those of the individual VOCs, the indoor-to-outdoor concentration ratios of all three VOC groups were higher than 1 over the 2-y follow-up period, suggesting higher indoor concentrations of the three VOC groups than outdoor concentrations. In consistence with the results of VOC indoor concentrations, the VOC emission rates decreased gradually as time passed, due to the decreased VOC emission strengths of indoor sources. Finally, there was an initial sharp decrease in the indoor VOC concentrations followed by a slower decrease, indicating a multi-exponential decay model for the target VOCs, which was demonstrated by comparison of the residuals and the adjusted coefficient of determination associated with the one and two-exponential fits of each data set.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.325-336
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• 2006

The presence of volatile organic compounds (VOC), produced and released from both anthropogenic and natural sources, can accelerate the degradation of air quality in the surrounding area. In this study, we investigated the emission concentrations of VOC based on a total of 115 sample analysis made from 47 companies (representing 17 types of industry) at the Ban Wall industrial complex (Jun. 2004 to Jan. 2005). Through a statistical analysis of these measurement data, we inspected the emission characteristics of VOC in relation with industrial type and processing unit. When these data were compared each other, toluene was found to record the highest value of 423 ppb followed by ethylbenzene (68.3 ppb), m, p-xylene (43.6 ppb), o-xylene (27.2 ppb), styrene (23.9 ppb), and benzene (16.4 pub). In addition, by converting these VOC concentration data into malodor intensity, we attempted to account for their distribution patterns in terms of relative contribution to the malodor formation. The results of odor intensity conversion generally indicated that the odor intensities of individual VOC do not exceed the degree of 1. When our VOC results were compared against other odorous compounds measured concurrently, the results were highly contrasting each other. Despite relative insignificance as odorous compounds, these VOCs are generally found ubiquitously and in abundant quantities in this strong source area.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.363-376
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• 2003

In this study, the fugitive emission characteristics of airborne volatile organic compounds from different source categories were evaluated with respect to the concentrations measured in the vicinity of the sources. A total of 22 different sources were investigated, including gasoline storage and filling stations, painting spray booth, laundry, printing officer, textile industries, and a number of environmental sanitary facilities such as landfill, wastewater treatment and incineration plants. The target VOCs included 83 individual compounds, which were determined by adsorption sampling and thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS analysis. Overall, the aliphatic compounds appeared to be the most abundant class of compounds in terms of their concentrations, followed by aromatic, and halogenated hydrocarbons. As a single compound, however, toluene was the most abundant one, explaining 11% of the total VOC concentrations as an average of all the dataset. Among source categories, petroleum associated sources such as gasoline storage/filling stations, and laundry factory were identified as the most significant sources of aliphatic hydrocarbons, while aromatic VOCs were dominantly emitted from the sources handling organic solvents, such as painting booth, printing offices, and textile dyeing processes. However. there was no apparent pattern in terms of the contributions of eath group to the total VOCs concentrations in environmental sanitary facilities. It was also found that the activated carbon adsorption tower installed for the VOC emission control in some facilities do not show any effective performances, which may result in the increased VOC levels in the ambient atmosphere.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.689-694
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• 2006

The system performance of a bioactive foam reactor (BFR), that consists of a foam column using a surfactant and a biodegradation basin containing suspended bacteria, was investigated for the treatment of gaseous toluene or a mixture of four volatile organic compounds (VOCs, benzene, toluene, p-xylene, and styrene). Overall, the BFR achieved stable VOC removal efficiencies, indicating that it can be used as a potential alternative over conventional packed-bed biofilters. Furthermore, a dynamic loading test showed that relatively constant removal was maintained at the elevated loading due to a high mass transfer rate in the foam column. However, as the inlet concentration of VOCs increased, a portion of the VOCs mass-transferred to the liquid phase was stripped out from the biodegradation basin, resulting in a decrease in the overall removal efficiency. In the BFR, the removal efficiency of the individual VOC was mainly determined depending on the biodegradation rate (styrene > toluene > benzene > p-xylene), rather than the mass transfer rate. Consequently, increases in the microbial activity and the volume of the basin could improve the overall performance of the BFR system. Further investigation on microbial activity and community dynamics is required for the BFR when subjected to high loadings of VOC mixtures.

• 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.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.42-54
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• 2010

Automobile emissions have caused a major hydrocarbon pollution problem in the ambient air of many cities around the world. This study was conducted to measure the pollution status of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in some urban residential areas in Seoul, Korea. A total of 20 VOCs (11 aromatic and 9 chlorinated species) were identified at 4 urban residential sites in Seoul, Korea from February 2009 to July 2009. Comparison of total VOC (TVOC) concentration data indicated the dominance of the aromatic species with the maximum (72.2 ppbC) at Jong Ro (JR) and the minimum at Yang Jae (33.4 ppbC). The peak concentration of TVOC occurred during spring at all sites with an exception at Gang Seo (GS), where it was recorded during winter. The distribution of individual VOCs at the study sites was characterized by high toluene concentration. A strong correlation of benzene was also observed with other VOCs and criteria pollutants at all sites (except YJ). The overall results of this study suggest that vehicular emissions have greatly contributed to the increase in VOC pollution at all the study sites.