Quantifying Urban Spatial Variations of Anthropogenic VOC Concentrations and Source Contributions with a Mobile Sampling Platform

Peishi Gu, Timothy R. Dallmann, Hugh Z. Li, Yi Tan and Albert A. Presto
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Peishi Gu: Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Timothy R. Dallmann: Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Hugh Z. Li: Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Yi Tan: Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Albert A. Presto: Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important atmospheric constituents because they contribute to formation of ozone and secondary aerosols, and because some VOCs are toxic air pollutants. We measured concentrations of a suite of anthropogenic VOCs during summer and winter at 70 locations representing different microenvironments around Pittsburgh, PA. The sampling sites were classified both by land use (e.g., high versus low traffic) and grouped based on geographic similarity and proximity. There was roughly a factor of two variation in both total VOC and single-ring aromatic VOC concentrations across the site groups. Concentrations were roughly 25% higher in winter than summer. Source apportionment with positive matrix factorization reveals that the major VOC sources are gasoline vehicles, solvent evaporation, diesel vehicles, and two factors attributed to industrial emissions. While we expected to observe significant spatial variability in the source impacts across the sampling domain, we instead found that source impacts were relatively homogeneous.

Keywords: air toxics; source apportionment; BTEX; mobile sampling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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