• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1465-1481
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• 2011

The accuracy of ozone sensitivity coefficients estimated with HDDM (High-order Decoupled Direct Method) can vary depending on the $NO_x$ (Nitrogen Oxides) and VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) conditions. In order to evaluate the applicability of HDDM over the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) during a high ozone episode in 2007 June, we compare BFM (Brute Force Method) and HDDM in terms of the $1^{st}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient to explain ozone change in response to changes in NOx and VOC emissions, and the $2^{nd}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient to represent nonlinear response of ozone to the emission changes. BFM and HDDM estimate comparable ozone sensitivity coefficients, exhibiting similar spatial and temporal variations over the SMAduring the episode. NME (Normalized Mean Error) between BFM and HDDM for the episode average $1^{st}$- and $2^{nd}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficients to NOx and VOC emissions are less than 3% and 9%, respectively. For the daily comparison, NME for the $1^{st}$- and $2^{nd}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficients are less than 4% ($R^2$ > 0.96) and 15% ($R^2$ > 0.90), respectively. Under the emission conditions used in this study, two methods show negative episode average $1^{st}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient to $NO_x$ emissions over the core SMA. The $2^{nd}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient to $NO_x$ emissions leads ozone to respond muchnonlinear to the reduction in $NO_x$ emissions over Seoul. Nonlinear ozone response to reduction in VOC emissions is mitigated due to the $2^{nd}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient which is much smaller than the $1^{st}$-order ozone sensitivity coefficient to the emissions in the magnitude.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.480-496
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• 2017

CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality)-HDDM (High-order Direct Decoupled Method) simulations with MICS-Asia 2010 and INTEX-B 2006 emissions inventories were performed to investigate the impact of Chinese $NO_x$ and VOC emissions on 1-hr ozone concentrations over South Korea during May to July in 2014. Chinese $NO_x$ and VOC emissions in MICS-Asia 2010 were 60% higher and 100% lower than those in INTEX-B 2006 during the simulation period. It makes the ratio of Chinese VOC to $NO_x$ emissions in INTEX-B 2006 (Case 1) is 3.2 times higher than that in MICS-Asia 2010 (Case 2). When the observed period mean 1-hr ozone concentration averaged across 106 air monitoring sites in the SMA (Seoul Metropolitan Area) was 37.6 ppb, the modeled values were similar to each other; 37.3 ppb for Case 1, and 40.4 ppb for Case 2. Both cases show that daily maximum 1-hr ZOC (Zero-Out Contribution) of Chinese $NO_x$ and VOC emissions were as high as 55 ppb and 35 ppb for the episode respectively. Correlation coefficients between ZOC of Chinese $NO_x$ and VOC emissions and the SMA daily maximum 1-hr ozone were 0.49~0.69. It indicates that Chinese emissions occasionally affect the SMA daily ozone peaks. On the other hand, Case 2 predicted 7 ppb and 1 ppb higher ZOC of Chinese $NO_x$ and VOC emissions than Case 1, when simulated ozone in the SMA is over 80 ppb. It implies that upwind $NO_x$ emissions would be more important than upwind VOC emissions for the long-range transport of ozone in Northeast Asia.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.219-234
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• 2021

Industrial emissions, mainly from industrial complexes, are important sources of ambient Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Identification of the significant VOC sources from industrial complexes has practical significance for emission reduction. VOC samples were collected from July 2019 to June 2020. A Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model was used to evaluate the VOC sources in the area. Four sources were identified by PMF analysis, including coating-1, coating-2, printing, and vehicle exhaust. The coating-1 source was revealed to have the highest contribution (41.5%), followed by coating-2 (23.9%), printing (23.1%), and vehicle exhaust (11.6%). The source showing the highest contribution was coating emissions, originating from the northwest to southwest of the sample site. It also relates to facilities that produce auto parts. The major components of VOC emissions from the coating facilities were toluene, m,p-xylene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and butyl acetate. Industrial emissions should be the top priority to meet the relevant control criteria, followed by vehicular emissions. This study provides a strategy for VOC source apportionment from an industrial complex, which is helpful in the development of targeted control strategies.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.146-157
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• 2015

Emissions of ozone precursors ($NO_x$ and VOCs) and photochemical ozone creation potentials (POCPs) of VOC emission sources were investigated in the largest port city (i.e., Busan), Korea during the year 2011. This analysis was performed using the Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS) national emission inventory provided by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Korea. For $NO_x$, the emissions from off-road mobile sources in Busan were the most dominant (e.g., $31,202ton\;yr^{-1}$), accounting for about 60% of the total $NO_x$ emissions. The emission from shipping of off-road mobile sources (e.g., $24,922ton\;yr^{-1}$) was a major contributor to their total emissions, amounting to 47% of the total $NO_x$ emissions due to the port-related activities in Busan. For VOCs, the emission source category of solvent usage was predominant (e.g., $36,062ton\;yr^{-1}$), accounting for approximately 82% of the total VOC emissions. Out of solvent usages, the emission from painting was the most dominant ($22,733ton\;yr^{-1}$), comprising 52% of the total emissions from solvent usages. The most dominant VOC species emitted from their sources in Busan was toluene, followed by xylene, butane, ethylbenzene, n-butanol, isopropyl alcohol, and propane. The major emission sources of toluene and xylene were found to be painting of coil coating and ship building, respectively. The value of POCP for the off-road mobile source (61) was the highest in ten major activity sectors of VOC emissions. Since the POCP value of ship transport of off-road mobile source (72) was also high enough to affect ozone concentration, the ship emission can play a significant role in ozone production of the port city like Busan.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.825-833
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• 2003

The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated from painting and coating processes is a worldwide problem as contributing factors to the development of photochemical smog and other environmental problems. Common methods of reducing VOC emissions are adsorption on activated carbon, membrane separation, absorption, incineration, or catalytic oxidation. In this article, the environmental issues caused by VOC emissions and the trend of legislation against such emissions will be surveyed first. Several conventional control technologies will then be summarized and the characteristics of each process will be introduced. Lastly, some examples will be described to show the hybrid processes which have been industrially applied for the recovery of VOC.

• 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.21 no.2
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• pp.259-268
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• 2005

In this study, we investigated the seasonal variations in the composition and emission patterns of VOC ventilated as landfill gas (LFG) from an urban municipal landfill site during the winter (2002) and summer (2003) period. The results of our study, when examined using the major aromatic VOC components as BTEX, indicated the existence of diverse characteristics in the LFG emissions of VOC. It was found that the relative extent of benzene emission showed most significant increase in the summer season, while most species underwent notable reductions. Despite the presence of certain patterns in the seasonal emissions of BTEX, the gross picture of their emission between summer and winter was not different distinctively so that the wintertime emissions exceed their summer counterparts by about three times. The observations of moderate enhancement in wintertime LFG emissions of BTEX appeared to reflect such environmental changes in the winter season as favorable conditions for LFG ventilation with reduced surface emissions due to frozen soil layers.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2006

In this study, a fundamental work for developing a biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds(BVOC) emission model in Korea has been carried out. Two different approaches, Biogenic Emission Inventory System(BEIS2) and CORINAIR Methodology(CORINAIR) were compared for estimating BVOC emissions. It was found that BEIS and CORINAIR showed very similar results each other BVOC emissions estimated by two different methods were about the same on a national and regional(provincial) scale. In case of monthly emissions the difference between BEIS and CORINAIR were larger than those on a national and regional(provincial) scale, especially in summer season(June, July and August). Although BEIS and CORINAIR are quite different techniques to correct the environmental conditions, they revealed similar results. Therefore, it is proven that both the methods are able to be applied to the estimation of the BVOC emissions in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 1999

ASPEN PLUS, a steady-state simulator, was used in this study for predicting emissions of VOCs and tracing the fate of all compounds in biodegradation processes. Mathematical models for the processes such as volatilization, reaction and clarification were adopted from literatures. Unlike most previous simulations that various pollutants were considered as a single component, COD or BOD, four components of water, biomass, VOCs and COD were included in this simulation. Sensitivity analysis of several physical parameters on the performance of the WWTP was conducted. Model predictions of VOCs emissions agreed well with the plant data. The simulator could provide design conditions for a future WWTP as well as monitoring/control regimes to an existing WWTP.