Automotive painting plants are important emission sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute significantly to ground-level ozone (O₃) pollution in atmosphere. Here, we investigated process-specified emission characteristics of VOCs, without or with advanced adsorption/incineration after-treatments, from an ultra-low-emission (ULE) waterborne painting process in a modernized automotive plant. Overall, more than 80 VOCs species were identified and sorted into seven main categories. In the stack emissions without after-treatments, oxygenated VOCs (alcohols, esters, ketones, ethers, etc.) were found to be the most abundant components (48.8%), followed by aromatic (30.9%), alkanes (16.9%) and alkenes (1.2%). Among the different VOCs species discharged to atmosphere (i.e. after adsorption/incineration after-treatments), aromatics demonstrated a predominant contribution (by 60.6%) to the total O₃ formation potentials (OFPs) despite their relatively lower abundance. Trimethylbenzene was identified to have the highest OFPs, and thus should be controlled with peculiar priority. As compared to traditional organic solvent-based painting process, the ULE waterborne process implemented in the target plant allows to reduce the OFPs from 10.7 mg m-3 to 3 mg m-3 (or by 72%). Additional monitoring by unmanned aerial vehicle (over more than 3000 sampling points in the plant) confirmed that the instantaneous concentrations of fugitive VOCs were well below the regulated limit value during typical working and non-working days. These findings may provide important reference for reduction of VOCs emissions and O3 pollution from automotive painting processes.
Keywords: Aromatics; Automobile manufacturing; Oxygenated VOCs; Trimethylbenzene; Ultra-low-emission; Unmanned aerial vehicle.
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