Distribution Characteristics of Volatile Organic Compounds and Contribution to Ozone Formation in a Coking Wastewater Treatment Plant

Yuxiu Zhang, Tingting Zang, Bo Yan and Chaohai Wei
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Yuxiu Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Tingting Zang: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Bo Yan: The Environmental Research Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510031, China
Chaohai Wei: The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Ozone pollution, which can be caused by photochemical reactions, has become a serious problem. The ozone formation potential (OFP) is used to describe the photochemical reactivity. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are main precursors of ozone formation, and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are important sources of VOCs. Therefore, it is necessary to study the concentration level and OFP of VOCs from WWTPs. In this work, a coking WWTP with anaerobic-oxic-oxic (A/O/O) processes in Shaoguan city, Guangdong province, China, was selected to investigate the characteristics of VOCs at wastewater treatment areas and office areas. The OFP of VOCs was estimated by the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) coefficient method. Results showed that 17 VOCs were detected, and the total concentration of VOCs was the highest at the raw water tank (857.86 μg m −3 ). The benzene series accounted for 69.0%–86.9% and was the main component of VOCs in the WWTP. Based on OFP data, the top six VOCs contributing most to the OFP were m-xylene, toluene, p-xylene, o-xylene, styrene, and benzene. This study provides field data and information on the environmental risk of VOCs for coking companies and environmental departments. We found that the priority control sources of VOCs were wastewater treatment units because of their larger OFP contributions.

Keywords: volatile organic compounds; ozone formation potential; maximum incremental reactivity (MIR); coking wastewater; anaerobic-oxic-oxic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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