TY - JOUR
T1 - Characteristics and source apportionment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at a coastal site in Hong Kong
AU - Tan, Yan
AU - Han, Shuwen
AU - Chen, Yi
AU - Zhang, Zhuozhi
AU - Li, Haiwei
AU - Li, Wenqi
AU - Yuan, Qi
AU - Li, Xinwei
AU - Wang, Tao
AU - Lee, Shun cheng
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by The National Key Research and Development Program of China ( 2016YFA0203000 ), The Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Government (Project No. T24/504/17 ), and The Environment and Conservation Fund of Hong Kong Government (Project No. ECF 63/2019 ). The authors would like to thank the University Research Facility for Chemical and Environmental Analysis (UCEA) of PolyU for equipment support, and the HKEPD for providing the trace gases and meteorological data, and Mr. Steven Poon for his help during campaign.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/7/10
Y1 - 2021/7/10
N2 - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are emitted from biomass burning, vehicle exhaust, and industrial emissions play a vital role in the formation of ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA). Since VOCs are the precursors of O3 and aerosol pollution which have become the world's most emergent environmental problems, a field measurement study focused on VOCs was carried out from 27 August to 10 October 2018 in a rural coastal site in Hong Kong. During the campaign, 13 VOC species were detected continuously with proton-transfer-reaction quadrupole mass spectrometry, and their effects on photochemical air pollution were studied. Methanol was the most abundant species among the measured VOCs (average concentration, 3.73 ± 3.26 ppb), and higher concentrations of oxygenated VOCs were found than reported in previous studies of atmospheric chemistry in rural areas. Diurnal variations were observed in the concentrations of various VOC species, indicating that the VOC concentrations were influenced by photochemical reactions. The amount of O3 formation was estimated based on the maximum incremental reactivity scale of the VOCs. The top five contributors to O3 formation in Hong Kong (in order) were isoprene (13.46 μg/m3), methyl ethyl ketone (12.74 μg/m3), xylene (8.52 μg/m3), acetaldehyde (8.22 μg/m3), and acrolein (4.32 μg/m3). Receptor model positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to identify the dominant emission sources and evaluate their corresponding contributions to VOCs. Five major VOC sources were identified with the PMF method, including (1) industry and vehicle-related sources (8.1%), (2) biogenic emissions (5.5%), (3) biomass burning (63.7%), (4) secondary formation (9.2%), and (5) ship-related emissions (13.5%). The source apportionment results from PMF analysis show that the sampling site at the southeastern tip of Hong Kong was strongly influenced by urban plumes from the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area/Pearl River Delta region and by oceanic emissions.
AB - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are emitted from biomass burning, vehicle exhaust, and industrial emissions play a vital role in the formation of ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA). Since VOCs are the precursors of O3 and aerosol pollution which have become the world's most emergent environmental problems, a field measurement study focused on VOCs was carried out from 27 August to 10 October 2018 in a rural coastal site in Hong Kong. During the campaign, 13 VOC species were detected continuously with proton-transfer-reaction quadrupole mass spectrometry, and their effects on photochemical air pollution were studied. Methanol was the most abundant species among the measured VOCs (average concentration, 3.73 ± 3.26 ppb), and higher concentrations of oxygenated VOCs were found than reported in previous studies of atmospheric chemistry in rural areas. Diurnal variations were observed in the concentrations of various VOC species, indicating that the VOC concentrations were influenced by photochemical reactions. The amount of O3 formation was estimated based on the maximum incremental reactivity scale of the VOCs. The top five contributors to O3 formation in Hong Kong (in order) were isoprene (13.46 μg/m3), methyl ethyl ketone (12.74 μg/m3), xylene (8.52 μg/m3), acetaldehyde (8.22 μg/m3), and acrolein (4.32 μg/m3). Receptor model positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to identify the dominant emission sources and evaluate their corresponding contributions to VOCs. Five major VOC sources were identified with the PMF method, including (1) industry and vehicle-related sources (8.1%), (2) biogenic emissions (5.5%), (3) biomass burning (63.7%), (4) secondary formation (9.2%), and (5) ship-related emissions (13.5%). The source apportionment results from PMF analysis show that the sampling site at the southeastern tip of Hong Kong was strongly influenced by urban plumes from the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area/Pearl River Delta region and by oceanic emissions.
KW - Ozone formation potential (OFP)
KW - PMF model
KW - PTR-MS
KW - Source apportionment
KW - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102399309&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146241
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146241
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85102399309
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 777
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 146241
ER -
