Two-year online measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at four sites in a Chinese city: Significant impact of petrochemical industry

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) management has been recently given a high priority in China to mitigate ozone (O₃) air pollution. However, there is a relatively poor understanding of VOCs due to their complexity and fewer observations. To better understand the pollution characteristics of VOCs and their impact on O₃ pollution, two-year continuous measurements were conducted at four representative sites in Ji'nan, eastern China. These four sites cover urban, background, and industrial areas (within a petroleum refinery). Ambient VOCs showed higher concentrations at industrial site than at urban and background sites, owing to intensive emissions from petrochemical industry. The VOCs compositions present spatial heterogeneity with alkenes dominated in total reactivity at urban and background sites, while alkenes and aromatics together dominated at industrial site. The VOCs emission profile from petrochemical industry was calculated based on observational data, which revealed a huge impact on light alkanes (C₂-C₅), light alkenes (ethene), and aromatics (toluene and m/p-xylene). The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model analysis further refined the impact of different petrochemical industrial processes. Alkanes and alkenes dominated the emissions during refining process, while aromatics dominated during solvent usage process. Analysis by an observation-based model indicated stronger in-situ O₃ production and higher sensitivity to nitrogen oxides at industrial site compared to urban and background sites. The reduction of VOCs emissions from petrochemical industry would significantly reduce the O₃ concentrations. The analyses underline the significant impact of petrochemical industry on VOCs and O₃ pollution, and provide important reference for the formulation of refined and effective control strategies.