• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.695-701
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• 2006

A toluene-degrading bacterial strain was isolated from a mixed culture that was maintained using toluene as a sole carbon and energy source. The isolated bacterium was classified as Pseudomonas sp. TBD4 based on the close relationship to bacteria belonging to this genus. A bottle study to determine biodegradation rates of individual aromatic compounds showed that the biodegradation was faster in the order of toluene, benzene, styrene, and p-xylene. However, when various mixtures were subjected to TDB4, styrene was degraded at the highest rate, indicating that both toluene and p-xylene could stimulate the degradation of other substrates whereas styrene played as an inhibitor. In addition, the mixed culture and TDB4 were inoculated to the bioactive foam reactor (BFR), and the reactor performance and the corresponding change of microbial community were monitored using the fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) method. When an inlet concentration of the VOC mixture increased to greater than 250 ppm, the overall removal efficiency dropped significantly. The FISH measurement demonstrated that the ratio of TDB4 to the total bacteria also decreased to less than 20% along with the decline in removal efficiency in the BFR. As a result, the periodic addition of the pre-grown TDB4 might have been beneficial to achieve a stable performance in the BFR operated over an extended period.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2004

In this study, the concentrations of reduced S compounds (including hydrogen sulfide (H$_2$S); methyl mercaptan ($CH_3$SH); dimethyl sulfide (($CH_3$)$_2$S); carbon disulfide (CS$_2$); and dimethyl disulfide (($CH_3$)$_2$S$_2$) were determined from landfill gas (LFG) in three municipal landfill sites in the two cities of Gwang Ju (GJ) and Jeju (JJ), Korea. The S gas concentrations measured in these landfill sites were found to be dominated by H$_2$S with its mean concentration of 850 ppm from 10 LFG samples. Both absolute and relative dominance of H$_2$S was seen to be significant in most LFG samples, except those collected from very old and inactive landfills. Unlike the pattern of H$_2$S, other S gases were typically observed at much reduced concentration levels (a few ppm or less) as follows: DMS (3.5); $CH_3$SH (1.3); CS$_2$(1.2); and DMDS (0.02 ppm). If compared equally in mass concentration unit (mg m$^{-3}$ ), H$_2$S generally explained far above 90% of all S gas masses determined concurrently. Moreover, as its mass concentration commonly exceeds those of the major aromatic VOC components in LFG (like benzene and toluene), it appeared to be one of the most dominant gaseous components emitted as LFG in a quantitative sense.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.E3
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• pp.101-107
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• 2001

Source profiles were developed for a total of 45 volatile organic compounds (VOC) that can be emitted from gasoline evaporation. The gasoline samples of five major brands (for each season) were blended on the basis of the market share in Seoul area and analyzed by a GC-MS/FID system. In addition, we calculated gasoline evaporative compositions using the Raoult's law from the liquid gasoline compositions. The measured and estimated gasoline vapor compositions agree well each other. As a group, alkanes are the most abundant in the gasoline vapors profiles (77.4% on average), followed by alkenes (19.1%), and aromatics (1.7%). As a specie in gasoline vapor, i-pentane is the most abundant, followed by n-butane, n-pentane, i-butane, trans-and cis-2-butenes, 2-methyl-2-butene, and trans-and cis-2-pentenes . It was also seen that aromatic content was much lower in the vapor phase compositions. From the comparison between experimental and calculated compositions, we identified the fact that once the gasoline vapor composition is reliably constructed entirely from the measured gasoline composition and the Raoult's law calculations, the need for doing separate chemical analyses of the gasoline vapor can be reduced.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.779-790
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• 2006

This study examines relative contributions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the formation of hydroxyl (OH) and peroxy radicals such as $HO_2$ and $RO_2$ during the intensive sampling period (Jun. $1{\sim}30$, 2004) in the air of Seoul metropolitan area. As to the contribution of VOCs to $HO_x$ levels, the impact of individual VOC concentration change on $HO_2$ concentration change was more than an order of magnitude higher than that on OH concentration change during the study period. The contribution of change in isoprene concentration to $HO_2$ concentration change was 38 times higher than OH and that in the concentration of alkene compounds to $HO_2$ concentration change was 31 times higher than OH. Moreover, the concentration changes of isoprene and aromatic compounds (AROM) played significant roles in $HO_x$ concentration changes. On the other hands, aldehydes (ALD2) and alkanes (ALKA) showed anti-correlation (negative) in $HO_x$ concentration changes with low contribution ($-4{\times}10^{-3}$ pptv/ppbv (OH) and $-58{\times}10^{-3}$ ($HO_2$) for ALD2; $-1{\times}10^{-3}$ (OH) and $-15{\times}10^{-3}$ ($HO_2$) for ALKA). Unlike other VOCs, $C_2H_6$ and $C_3H_8$ showed positive or negative contribution to peroxy radicals, depending on ambient air conditions. The contribution of VOC concentration changes to changes in $CH_3O_2$ and $RO_2$ concentration showed similar pattern to $HO_x$ contribution.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.121-138
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• 1999

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of a sampling and analytical methodology for the measurement of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the ambient air. VOCs were determined by the adsorbent tube sampling and automatic thermal desorption coupled with GC/FID and GC/MSD analysis. Target analytes were aromatic VOCs, including BTEX, 1,3,5-and 1,2,4,-trimethylbenzenes(TMBs), and naphthalene. The methodology was investigatedwith a wide range of performance criteria such as repeatability, linearity, lower detection limits, collection efficiency, thermal conditioning, breakthrough volume and calibration methods using internal and external standards. standards. Stability of samples collected on adsorbent tubes during storage was also investigated. In addition, the sampling and analytical method developed during this study was applied to real samples duplicately collected in various indoor and outdoor environments. Precisions for the duplicate samples and distributed volume samples appeared to be well comparable with the performance criteria recommended by USEPA TO-17. The audit accuracy was estimated by inter-lab comparison of both duplicate samples and standard materials between the two independent labs. The overall precision and accuracy of the method were estimated to be within 30% for major aromatic VOCs such as BTEX. This study demonstrated that the adsorbent sampling and thermal desorption method can be reliably applied for the measurement of BTEX in ppb levels frequently occurred in common indoor and ambient environments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.55-58
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• 2003

The ambient concentrations of benzene, toluene, and $\alpha$-/$\beta$-pinene were measured from July, 2002 to August, 2002 at the Gumsung mountain site in Jeonnam province. The mean concentration of benzene for this study was $62.6{\pm}43.9$ pptv (Min. 20.4 ~ Max. 151.2 pptv) , and that of toluene was 619.8 ${\pm}$ 330.2pptv (264.8~1, 386pptv). It was observed that the concentrations of $\alpha$ -pinene and $\beta$ -pinene were $169.0{\pm}97.7$ pptv (72.9~396.1pptv) and $11.2{\pm}27.9$pptv (7.5 ~95.9 pptv) , respectively. The ambient concentrations of aromatic and natural VOCs were found at the pptv level. In this study, the toluenelbenzene ratios were $13.9{\pm}11.2$ , but they were a little higher than those found in the domestic study and approximately 5 times greater than the values in the foreign study. The $\beta$ -/ $\alpha$ -pinene ratios ranged between 0.05 and 0.55, and this range was found to be similar in the foreign study.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.487-496
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to develop the preliminary source fingerprints of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The source categories studied were vehicles, gasoline vapor, gasoline storage tank, coating, dry cleaning and road covering. The source samples were collected using 6L electro-polished stainless steel canisters for about 20 seconds. From this study, the main component emitted from VOC sources in Korea was toluene. The toluene proportion for road covering, vehicles, coating and gasoline vapor were 35, 18, 16 and 5%, respec- tively. The C$_2$-C$\sub$5/ alkane and alkene compounds were mainly emitted from vehicles, gasoline vapor and gasoline storage tank. The main compounds of coating were m/p-xylene(34%), toluene(16%), 1,2,4-TMB(10%) and o-xylene(9%), which are aromatic hydrocarbons. In the case of dry cleaning, nonane(41%), 1,2,4-TMB (22%) and 1,3,5-TMB(13%) were mainly emitted.

• 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.14 no.2
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• pp.153-160
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• 1998

The concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere were measured from the Yochon Industrial Estate and compared with those from Tongkwangyang and Seoul. The first important phenomenon observed in the air of Yochon was high concentrations of alkenes and in particular, ethylene and propene. For most dominant species, their means and standard deviations were high simultaneously. Concentrations of several major aliphatic species exhibited a similar pattern of diurnal variation, however, with different species combination on each day. Concentrations of several hazardous aromatic species also exhibited a similar pattern of diurnal variation on the same day, which was different from that observed in the diurnal variation of major aliphatic species. It was interpreted that some species were intermittently released from relevant processes. It was also understood that high concentrations and variations of VOC species in Yochon were localized and not related to high average concentrations of ozone in Yochon and Tongkwangyang areas.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.496-513
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• 2004

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of sampling and analytical methodology used for the measurement of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the ambient air. VOCs were determined by the adsorbent tube sampling and automatic thermal desorption coupled with GC/MSD analysis. Target analytes were 33 compounds including major aromatic compounds such as BTEX, and halogenated compounds. The methodology was investigated with a wide range of different adsorbents which are commercially available and have been frequently adopted for the VOC measurement. A total of 10 adsorbents were tested in this study: 6 carbon-based adsorbents such as Carbotrap, Carbopack B, Carbosieve S-III, Carboxen 1000, Carbotrap C, Activated Charcoal; and 4 polymer-based adsorbents including Tenax, Porapak Q, Chromosorb 102, and Chromosorb 106. The sampling performance was evaluated with respect to the sampling capacity of VOCs with single-adsorbent and multiple-adsorbents methods for standard samples and field samples. As a result, the best adsorbents for single-adsorbent method in the sampling of toxic organic compounds (including benzene, toluene, xylenes etc.) appeared to be Carbotrap, Carbopack B and Tenax TA. On the other hand, Chromosorb 102, Chromosorb 106 and Porapak Q were found to be unsuitable adsorbents for VOC measurement based on thermal desorption method. Multi-adsorbent packings were evaluated with 4 carbon-based adsorbents, which classified by 3 combination sets of double adsorbents and 2 combination sets of triple adsorbents. The results indicated that the most suitable combination for toixc VOC measurements is Carbotrap C with Carbotrap. Multi-sorbents tubes packed with a strong adsorbent such as Carbosieve S-III or Carboxen 1000 were found to be relatively unsuitable for several compounds, not only owing to the effect of migration of adsorbed compounds from weaker adsorbent to stronger adsorbent, but to hydrophobic nature of the adsorbents. Therefore, it should be addressed that selection of a proper adsorbent (or combination of multi sorbents) is extremely important to obtain reliable data for the concentrations of toxic VOCs in indoor and outdoor environments.