Urban roadside aromatic hydrocarbons in three cities of the Pearl River Delta, People's Republic of China

Xin ming Wang, Guo ying Sheng, Jia mo Fu, Chuen yu Chan, Shuncheng Lee, Lo Yin Chan, Zhi shi Wang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

173 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Urban roadside levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX) were investigated in three typical cities (Guangzhou, Macau and Nanhai) in the Pearl River Delta Region of south China. Air samples were collected at typical ground level microenvironments by multi-bed adsorbent tubes. The BTEX concentrations were determined by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass selective detector (TD-GC-MSD) technique. The mean concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes were, respectively, 51.5, 77.3, 17.8 and 81.6μg/m3in Guangzhou, 34.9, 85.9, 24.1, 95.6μg/m3in Macau, and 20.0, 39.1, 3.0 and 14.2μg/m3in Nanhai. The relative concentration distribution pattern and mutual correlation analysis indicated that in Macau BTEX were predominantly traffic-related while in Guangzhou benzene had sources other than vehicle emission. In Nanhai, both benzene and toluene had different sources other than vehicle emission. The samples collected from Guangzhou showed that BTEX had significant higher concentrations in November than those in July.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5141-5148
Number of pages8
JournalAtmospheric Environment
Volume36
Issue number33
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2002

Keywords

  • Aromatic hydrocarbons
  • Benzene
  • Urban air pollution
  • Vehicle emission

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Environmental Science
  • Atmospheric Science

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