Stationary monitoring and source apportionment of VOCs in a chemical industrial park by combining rapid direct-inlet MSs with a GC-FID/MS

Yinzhi Huang; Song Gao; Shijian Wu; Xiang Che; Yong Yang; Junjie Gu; Wen Tan; Dinghua Ruan; Guangli Xiu; Qingyan Fu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148639

Stationary monitoring and source apportionment of VOCs in a chemical industrial park by combining rapid direct-inlet MSs with a GC-FID/MS

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Nov 15:795:148639. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148639. Epub 2021 Jun 24.

Authors

Yinzhi Huang¹, Song Gao², Shijian Wu³, Xiang Che³, Yong Yang³, Junjie Gu¹, Wen Tan⁴, Dinghua Ruan⁵, Guangli Xiu⁶, Qingyan Fu³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory on Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, Shanghai 200237, China.
² Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, State Ecologic Environmental Scientific Observation and Research Station at Dianshan Lake, Shanghai 200235, China; Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
³ Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, State Ecologic Environmental Scientific Observation and Research Station at Dianshan Lake, Shanghai 200235, China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1033, Blindern, Oslo 0315, Norway.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
⁶ Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory on Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, Shanghai 200237, China. Electronic address: xiugl@ecust.edu.cn.

PMID: 34328932
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148639

Abstract

Fast and comprehensive monitoring of VOCs, required for air quality management in large-scale chemical industrial parks in China, cannot be accomplished by stationary measurements using conventional GC-FID or GC-MS alone due to their low temporal resolutions and limited detectable ranges. Novel direct-inlet mass spectrometry (DI-MS) has been widely applied for real-time monitoring of VOCs. To verify its applicability in industrial settings, high mass-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight MS (HMR-PTR-TOFMS), single-photon ionization time-of-flight MS (SPI-TOFMS), together with online GC-FID/MS were simultaneously deployed at the boundary of one of the largest chemical industrial parks in eastern China. Aromatics, acetonitrile, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, aliphatic hydrocarbons, 1,2-dichloroethane, and acetone were detected as the main pollutants. These three instruments detected 12 common species, among which ethyl acetate, toluene, C8-aromatics, and methyl ethyl ketone showed similar time series and levels. Acetone, benzene, chlorobenzene, styrene, and C9-aromatics showed only similar time series. The HMR-PTR-TOFMS uniquely detected 14 species, mainly oxidized VOCs, nitriles, and amines, which greatly helps acknowledge the pollutants in the chemical industrial area. Positive matrix factorization, using the HMR-PTR-TOFMS and GC-FID/MS datasets, was used to identify eight sources. Four of the identified sources were mainly detected by the HMR-PTR-TOFMS, with pollutants mainly comprised of nitriles, amines, carbonyls, and organic acids, most of which were hazardous and/or odorous. These four sources accounted for 41.5% and 33.2% of the total VOCs and ozone formation potential, respectively. The complementary nature of GC-FID/MS and HMR-PTR-TOFMS in VOC source apportionment in industrial settings is of great practical use for advanced VOCs abatement. Thus, the high mass resolution DI-MSs are suggested to be a supplementary measurement for fence-line monitoring. Although with a relatively short period attempt, this study has wide implications for the fence-line stationary observational modes and source apportion methods combining with traditional observations.

Keywords: Chemical industrial park; DI-MS; GC-FID/MS; Source apportionment; VOCs.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Bays
Environmental Monitoring
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Volatile Organic Compounds