• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2000

The present study evaluated the body burden of aromatic VOCs in roadside and underground storekeepers. The Method Detection Limit(MDL) of the analytical system ranged from 0.2 to 0.4$\mu\textrm{g}$/m3 for the target VOCs. The recovery of the sampling system for the compounds was above 80%. For all the target compounds, the breath concentrations of the smokes were similar to or slightly higher than those of the nonsmokers for both the roadside and underground storekeepers. For Ethylbenzene, p-Xylene, and o-Xylene, the breath concentrations of the underground storekeepers were somewhat higher than those of the roadside storekeepers. In contrast, the breath m-xylene concentration of underground storekeepers was similar to that of roadside storekeepers. For both the roadside and underground storekeepers, the breath concentrations prior to and after work were not significantly different.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.2439-2444
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• 2011

We investigated the adsorption/desorption property of volatile organic compounds(VOC) by using activated carbon fibers(ACF) instead of activated carbon(AC) which is conventionally used. The adsorption behavior of the fixed bed and the breakthrough characteristics were also studied. As a result, ACFj showed 1.15 times higher adsorption amount as compared to AC. The breakthrough Point and adsorption amount of VOCs were decreased with the increase of temperature. In the case of AC, desorption time having 99% removal efficiency was about as minutes, but that of ACF was about 5 minutes at same condition.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.633-638
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• 2019

Indoor air quality underground facilities are not equipped for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and they are usually treated by diffusion methods such as ventilation. In this study, an adsorption filter was prepared using various coating methods such as carbon nano fiber (CNF) and dip coating. As a result, the adsorption performance was improved by 2 to 20 times or more compared to that of using the metal foam support. This is maybe due to the enhancement of pore distribution which was confirmed by SEM. In addition, the adsorption performance was 13.95 mg/g by adding lignin, and also an average adsorption performance of 13.25 mg/g was maintained after washing indicating that a highly durable adsorption filter material was prepared. It can be suggested that the developed adsorption filter material can be a potential solution that can fundamentally control VOCs, not via the concentration reduction of mechanical ventilation in underground facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.393-405
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• 2018

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are representative air pollutants due to their detrimental effects on human health and their role in formation of secondary organic aerosols. Assessments and monitoring programs of VOCs using periodic grab sampling like Tedlar bags, canisters, and sorbent traps provide limited information, often with delay times of days or weeks. Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) is an emerging analytical technique for the real-time quantification of VOCs in air. It relies on chemical ionization of the VOCs molecules in air introduced into helium carrier gas using $H_3O^+$, $NO^+$, and $O_2{^+}$ precursor ions. Real-time monitoring method of 60 VOCs in the ambient air was developed using TO-15 standard gas mixture. Calibration curves, method detection limit, and quantitation reproducibility of the target compounds were tested. Dynamic dilution system was used to dilute standard gas from 0.174 ppbv to 100 ppbv, where calibration curves showed good linearity with $r^2$> 0.95 in all target analytes. Limit of detection (LOD) all compounds were sub ppbv, and some halogenated compounds showed pptv levels. Seven consecutive analyses of target compounds showed good repeatability with relative standard deviation of less than 10%. One day monitoring of VOCs in ambient air was conducted in Geoje. Average concentration of target VOCs in Geoje were relatively lower than other regions, among which formaldehyde showed the highest concentration ($15.4{\pm}5.78ppbv$). SIFT-MS provided good temporal resolution data (1 data per 3.2 minute), which can be used for identifying ephemeral short-term event. It is expected that SIFT-MS will be a versatile monitoring platform for VOCs in ambient air.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1025-1032
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• 2009

This study investigated a possibility to develop an adsorption process for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of the solvent emitted during dry cleaning. Pitch activated carbon fiber (ACF) was chosen as an adsorbent of VOCs, and an electric swing adsorption process was utilized for the reproduction of the adsorbent after the completion of VOCs adsorption. Effects of ACF types and several solvents such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and toluene were examined on breakthrough curves and amounts of adsorbed VOCs. ACF was pretreated under various conditions in order to enhance the amounts of the adsorbed VOCs. Temperatures and voltages were measured for the reproduction of the ACF after full adsorption. ACF having micropores exhibited high adsorption of TCE, and high surface area of ACF could increase the adsorption property of toluene. In general, ACF could adsorb 41~54% TCE of the adsorbent weight. The increase of inlet VOCs concentration significantly decreased the breakthrough time and slightly lowered the amounts of adsorbed VOCs. Thus, ACF could effectively adsorb VOCs in low concentration in the feed stream. ACF pretreated by heat under vacuum showed excellent toluene adsorption with controlling oxygen functional groups on the ACF surface, which revealed that vacant carbon site could be the adsorption point of toluene. Most adsorbed toluene was desorbed at $150^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.498-505
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• 2014

This study was carried out to characterize the ambient VOCs concentrations of industrial complex in Daegu city. VOCs concentrations of industrial complex area appeared to be higher than those in the non-industrial complex area as following order toluene > ethylbenzene > m,p-xylenes > o-xylene but benzene and chloroform were similar to each other sites. There was seasonal variation of VOCs concentrations in the industrial complex area, higher in summer and lower in winter. In particular the industrial complex area shows that higher on weekday than weekend and higher in the daytime than in the morning or nighttime because industrial complex area influenced by the chemicals. Correlation coefficients among VOCs were confirmed that VOCs of industrial complex area were more related to each other than those of non-industrial complex area and VOCs concentrations have shown generally negative correlation with wind speed.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.288-298
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• 2004

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.586-599
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• 2014

During the last two decades, indoor air quality and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been of concern in Korean society due to their nature of potential health impacts. In order to investigate the pollution levels of VOCss in indoor environments, establishment of a solid test method for monitoring the airborne VOCss is essential. In Korea, a method based on adsorbent sampling and GC analysis coupled with thermal desorption was proclaimed as the Korea Standard Method for Indoor Air Quality Test. This study was carried out to examine some inherent problems of the VOCs measurement method. The VOCs method does not describe in detail preparing the standard samples. The standard samples may be prepared by impregnation of either liquid standard solutions or a mixture of standard gases. In this study, we investigated the optimal temperature condition for transferring the liquid standards onto a standard adsorbent tube. As a result, keeping the impregnation temperature at $250^{\circ}C$ will be recommended in regard of the boiling points of multiple target analytes and the thermal stability of the adsorbent. We also demonstrated some problems associated with handling of a syringe used for transferring the standard solutions onto the adsorbent tubes, and a best way to get rid of the syringe problems was suggested. Finally, a number of field works were conducted to evaluate the performance of adsorbent sampling methods. Comparison of different adsorbent tubes, i.e. tube packed with single sorbent (Tenax) and double sorbents (Tenax with Carbotrap), revealed that 30 to 40% differences between the two groups, implying that sampling efficiency is depending on the volatility and the strength of adsorbents. However, duplicate precisions for VOCs sampling with a same type of adsorbent and at same flow rates appeared to be satisfactory to be all within 20%, which is a quality control guideline. Distributed volume precisions were also found to be within a guideline value, 25%, although the precision was in general inferior to the duplicate precision. The Korea indoor VOCs test method should be more refined and improved in many aspects, particularly procedure and instrumentation for preparing the standard samples and specification of quality control assessment.

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2017

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are widely used in both industrial and domestic activities. VOCs are one of the most unpleasant, frequently complaint-rousing factors of pollution around the world. It is now necessary to research and develop an alternative technology that could overcome the problems of the existing odor-control and VOC-eliminating techniques. In this study, essential oil and photocatalytic process was applied in the removal of benzene and toluene, typical VOCs in petrochemistry plant. therefore, this study conducted experiments on the selection of appropriate essential oil, photodegradation, hydroxyl radical generation capacity. The removal efficiency and reaction rate were performed to selecte the type and concentration of essential oil. As a result, removal efficiency of Hinoki Cypress oil was approximately 70% and reaction rate of Hinoki Cypress was high. The results of photolysis experiment, photocatalytic oxidation process showed that the decomposition efficiency of VOCs increased considerably with increasing UV lamp power. In addition, the conversion of VOCs was increased up to $0.1gL^{-1}$ photocatalysts. The hydroxyl radicals measure was performed to determine the ability to generate hydroxyl radicals. The analytical result showed that high $TiO_2$ concentration and lamp power was produced many hydroxyl radical. Experiments of the removal efficiency and reaction rate were performed using essential oil and photooxidation. As a result, the removal efficiency showed that the removal efficiency was increased high temperature and reaction time. The activation energy was calculated from the reaction rate equation at various temperature condition. Activation energy was approximately $18kJmol^{-1}$.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.627-637
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• 2010

Emission rate of monoterpene and isoprene was measured in five commonly growing tree species of conifers(Pinus thunbergii, Abies koreana, Cryptomeria japonica, Pinus densiflora, Chamaecyparis obtusa) at the Halla mountain sites. Dynamic flow enclosure technique was used and gas samples were collected into Tenax tube. The highest and lowest hourly emission rate was observed in Abies koreana (1.86 ${\mu}g$/gdw/hr) and Chamaecyparis obtusa (0.52 ${\mu}g$/gdw/hr), respectively. The major species of monoterpene from pine trees were ${\alpha}$-pinene, ${\beta}$-pinene, ${\beta}$-phellandrene, myrcene. Particularly, d-limonene was abundant in Abies koreana but ${\alpha}$-pinene, $d^3$-carene and sabinene was in Cryptomeria japonica. Emission rates of isoprene show less significant than those of monoterpene. And also seasonal emission rates of monoterpene were dependent on environmental factors such as temperature.