• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.307-316
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• 2013

The sensitivity of ozone to $NO_x$ and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission rates under different ventilation rates and $NO_2-to-NO_x$ emission ratios in a street canyon is investigated using a chemistry box model. The carbon bond mechanism IV (CBM-IV) with 36 gaseous species and 93 chemical reactions is incorporated. $NO_x$ and VOCs emission rates considered range from 0.01 to $0.30ppb\;s^{-1}$ with intervals of $0.01ppb\;s^{-1}$. Three different ventilation rates and three different $NO_2-to-NO_x$ emission ratios are considered. The simulation results show that the ozone concentration decreases with increasing $NO_x$ emission rate but increases with increasing VOCs emission rate. When the emission ratio of VOCs to $NO_x$ is smaller than about 4, the ozone concentration is lower in the street canyon than in the background. On average, the magnitude of the sensitivity of ozone to $NO_x$ emission rate is significantly larger than that to VOCs emission rate. As the $NO_x$ emission rate increases, the magnitude of the sensitivity of ozone to $NO_x$ and VOCs emission rates decreases. Because the ozone concentration is lower in the street canyon than in the background, the increased ventilation rate enhances ozone inflow from the background. Therefore, the increase in ventilation rate results in the increase in ozone concentration and the decrease in the magnitude of the sensitivity of ozone to $NO_x$ and VOCs emission rates when the emission ratio of VOCs to $NO_x$ is smaller than about 4. On the other hand, the increase in $NO_2-to-NO_x$ emission ratio results in the increase in ozone concentration because the chemical ozone production due to the $NO_2$ photolysis is enhanced. In the present experimental setup, the contribution of the change in $NO_2-to-NO_x$ emission ratio to the change in the sensitivity of ozone to $NO_x$ emission rate is larger than that of the change in ventilation rate.

• 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.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2012

This study was performed mainly to examine whether a city with a metal industrial presence presents different characteristics in ambient volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations compared to residential (RES) and commercial/residential combined (CRC) areas of another city by using long-term monitoring data (from January 2006 to February 2009). For most target VOCs, ambient concentrations in the metal-industrialized city were lower than for the RES and CRC areas. Aromatic compounds were the predominant VOC groups for the metal industry city as well as for other land uses. The ambient concentrations of aromatic VOCs were higher in the winter and spring seasons than in the summer and fall seasons, whereas those of chlorinated VOCs did not show any distinctive variations. In addition, higher concentrations were observed during daytime hours. The correlations between the ambient target compounds were statistically significant, except for the correlation between benzene and ozone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.291-295
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• 2002

We measured the concentrations of heavy metals and VOCs in groundwaters (N=38) in Seoul. The comparison of our data with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Maximum Contaminant Levels for Drinking Water and with the Korean Drinking Water Standards shows that most of the metals except for Fe and Mn do not exceed the levels. However, the concentrations of most heavy metals (esp., Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni) tend to increase in residential and industrialized areas. The examination of the metal speciation using Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV) and TOC analyzer Indicates that large amounts of Zn occur as labile metal fraction, whereas Cu occurs as non- labile forms at many sites, possibly due to its tendency to be adsorbed onto inorganic colloidal particles to form electroinactive species in groundwater. The most frequently existed VOCs in Seoul groundwaters are trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, especially in agricultural, industrial, and high traffic areas.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.E3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2001

The present paper examined the kinetics of photocatalytic degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including gaseous trichloroethylene (TCE) and acetone. In this study, we examined the effects of the initial concentration of VOCs and the light intensity of ultra-violet (UV). A batch photo-reactor was specifically designed for this work. The photocatalytic degradation rate increased with the initial concentration of VOCs but remained almost constant beyond a certain concentration. It matched well with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetic model. When the effect of light intensity was concerned, it was found that photocatalytic degradation occurs in two regimes with respect to light intensity.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.743-748
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• 2002

UV photolysis process is little known in parts of air pollution treatment, so there are not many applications in field. Therefore we have to do more experiment and study application possibility for treatment of VOCs(Volatile organic compounds). To solve these problems, we have been studying for simultaneous application of this technology. It has shown that concentration of TCE and B.T.X., diameter of reactor and wavelength of lamp have effected on decomposition efficiency. Analysis of TCE and B.T.X. concentration was carried out by GC-FID. A cylinderical reactor consisting of a quartz tube and a centrally located lamp(${\psi}25mm$) was used. The length and diameter of reactor were 1800mm, 75mm. It has shown that the generated ozone concentration goes up 250ppm when using 64watt ozone lamp. When using Photolysis process only, the rates of fractional conversion of each material are TCE 79%, Benzene 65%, Toluene 68%, Xylene 76%. This phenomenon can be rationalized in terms of the different bond energy that indicates how easily VOCs species can be decomposed.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.147-160
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• 2002

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important public health issue in Korea and many important questions remain to be addressed with respect to assessing exposure to these compounds. Because they are ubiquitous and highly volatile, special techniques must be applied in their analytic determination Valid Personal exposure assessment methods are needed to evaluate exposure frequency, duration and intensity, as well as their relationship to personal exposure characteristics. Biological monitoring is also important since it may contribute significantly in risk assessment by allowing the estimation of effective absorbed doses. This study was on ducted to establish the environmental measurement, personal dosimetry and biological monitoring methods for VOCs. These methods are needed to compare blood, urinary and exhalation breath VOC levels and to provide tools for risk assessment of VOC exposure. Passive monitors (badge type) and a active samplers (trap) for the VOCs collection were used for air sampling. Methods development included determining the minimum detectable amounts of VOCs in each media, as well as evaluating collection methods and developing analytical procedures. Method reliability was assessed by determining breakthrough volumes and comparing results between laboratories and with other methods. A total capacity of trap used in this study was 60ι. Although variable by compound, the average breakthrough was 20％. Also, there was no loss of compounds in trap even if keep for 45 day in -7$0^{\circ}C$. The recovery of active and passive methods was 69％ ~ 126％ and method detection limit was 0.24 $\mu\textrm{g}$/trap and 0.07 $\mu\textrm{g}$/badge. There was no statistical difference (P > 0.05) between active and passive methods.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.591-607
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• 2020

This study was aimed to investigate the changes of chemical composition of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from red pine needles in the process of needle abscission or senescence. The VOCs in intact, senescent, and litter red pine needle samples were analyzed by headspace-solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS). And then, multivariate statistical interpretation of the processed data sets was conducted to investigate similarities and dissimilarities of the needle samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to investigate the dataset structure and discrimination between samples, respectively. From the data preview, the levels of major components of VOCs from needles were not significantly different between needle samples. By PCA investigation, the data reduction according to classification based on the chlorophyll a / chlorophyll b (Ca/Cb) ratio were found to be ideal for differentiating intact, senescent, and litter needles. The following OPLS-DA taking Ca/Cb ratio as y-variables showed that needle samples were well grouped on score plot and had the significant discriminant compounds, respectively. Several compounds had significantly correlated with Ca/Cb ratio in a bivariate correlation analysis. Notably, the litter needles had a higher content of oxidized compounds than the intact needles. In summary, we found that chemical compositions of VOCs between intact, senescent, and litter needles are different each other and several compounds reflect characteristic of needle.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.16 no.E
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• pp.39-46
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• 2000

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are considered as the precursors of atmospheric ozone and photochemical smog formation. In particular, chemical plants have produced a lot of VOCs and thus they have been forced to reduce or remove air emissions from the on-site chemical facilities. For the effective removal of VOCs produced in the chemical plants, the authors employed a titanium oxide(TiO$_2$) mediated photo-catalytic oxidation method. The initiation methods employed in this study to produce oxygen radicals for th photo-catalytic oxidation of the VOCs were Ultra-Violet(UV), Non-Thermal Plasma(NTS), and a combination of Uv and NTP. This study focused on a comparison of the removal efficiencies of VOCs as a function of the initiation method such as NTP and/or UV techniques. Removal efficiency change of VOCs as was investigated as a function of the wavelength of the UV lamp(254, 302, and 365 nm) and the degree of TiO$_2$ coating (10 and 30%). In this study, it was identified that removal efficiencies if the VOCs under the normal air environment were much better than those under the nitrogen gas environment containing small amount of oxygen. Removal efficiency by NTP technique was much better than the UV or the combination of UV and NTP techniques. In a comparison if UV wavelengths employed, it was found that shorter wavelength showed better removal efficiency, compared with longer ones. When the removal efficiencies of VOCs were compared in terms of the degree of TiO$_2$ coating, the higher TiO$_2$coating showed better removal efficiency that the lower TiO$_2$ coating

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.784-790
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• 2010

VOCs such as acetone, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene were adsorbed in a fixed-bed adsorber using zeolite synthesized from coal fly ash and 4 kinds of activated carbon at 101.3 kPa. The adsorber was operated batchwise with the charge of 5 g adsorbent to obtain the breakthrough curve of VOCs. Experiments were carried out at $40^{\circ}C$, nitrogen flow rate of $70cm^3/min$ and sparger temperature of $30^{\circ}C$. The deactivation model was tested for these curves by combining the adsorption of VOCs and the deactivation of adsorbent particles. The observed values of the adsorption rate constant and the deactivation rate constant were evaluated through analysis of the experimental breakthrough data using a nonlinear least square technique. The experimental breakthrough data were fitted very well to the deactivation model than the adsorption isotherm models in the literature. Also, adsorption capacities of adsorbents were obtained from the breakthrough curve to observe the correlation between adsorption capacity and the physical properties of VOCs.