The levels, sources and reactivity of volatile organic compounds in a typical urban area of Northeast China.

Air concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were continually measured at a monitoring site in Shenyang from 20 August to 16 September 2017. The average concentrations of alkanes, alkenes, aromatics and carbonyls were 28.54, 6.30, 5.59 and 9.78 ppbv, respectively. Seven sources were identified by the Positive Matrix Factorization model based on the measurement data of VOCs and CO. Vehicle exhaust contributed the most (36.15%) to the total propene-equivalent concentration of the measured VOCs, followed by combustion emission (16.92%), vegetation emission and secondary formation (14.33%), solvent usage (10.59%), petrochemical industry emission (9.89%), petrol evaporation (6.28%), and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) usage (5.84%). Vehicle exhaust, solvent usage and combustion emission were found to be the top three VOC sources for O3 formation potential, accounting for 34.52%, 16.55% and 11.94%, respectively. The diurnal variation of the total VOCs from each source could be well explained by their emission characteristics, e.g., the two peaks of VOC concentrations from LPG usage were in line with the cooking times for breakfast and lunch. Wind rose plots of the VOCs from each source could reveal the possible distribution of the sources around the monitoring site. The O3 pollution episodes during the measurement period were found to be coincident with the elevation of VOCs, which was mainly due to the air parcel from the southeast direction where petrochemical industry emission was found to be dominant, suggesting that the petrochemical industry emission from the southeast was probably a significant cause of O3 pollution in Shenyang.

[Characteristics of Reactive VOCs Species During High Haze-Pollution Events in Suburban Area of Shanghai in Winter].

Based on the online measurements of VOCs of high pollution process at the university site in winter, VOCs' characteristics and species at different levels of haze pollution were analyzed. Fifty-five VOCs were detected during sampling. ∑55VOCs concentrations ranged between 25.5×10-9-1320.3×10-9(avg±SD,240×10-9±181×10-9). Toluene and xylene were the major pollutants during high pollution process, the concentrations of which were higher than those of industrial area. The university site shared a similar VOC composition with that of industrial area, which suggested that it might be influenced by the surrounding industries. VOCs species exhibited high concentrations in nighttime while low concentrations in daytime. The ozone concentrations were on the contrary. Aromatic hydrocarbons were predominant with a high percentage of contribution (70.0%) to OFP (ozone formation potential). Alkenes and alkynes were the second highest group (16.7%). The OFP of VOCs was 2078.2×10-9 under the west-south wind direction, about 4 times higher than the value under other wind directions (505.8×10-9). Aromatic hydrocarbons exhibited a predominant contribution to OFP at different levels of haze pollution in this area, among which, Toluene and xylene contributed more than 50% to OFP. The newest version of EPA PMF model was used to identify the major source of VOCs and evaluate their contributions. Gasoline sources and vehicle exhaust, refinery and petroleum products, solvent use and organic synthetic materials were the identified VOC sources in the study area, contributing 33.1%, 31.5%, 30.5%, and 4.9%, respectively to the ∑55VOCs concentrations.

Environmental impact of heavy pig production in a sample of Italian farms. A cradle to farm-gate analysis.

Four breeding piggeries and eight growing-fattening piggeries were analyzed to estimate potential environmental impacts of heavy pig production (>160kg of live height at slaughtering). Life Cycle Assessment methodology was adopted in the study, considering a system from breeding phase to growing fattening phase. Environmental impacts of breeding phase and growing-fattening phase were accounted separately and then combined to obtain the impacts of heavy pig production. The functional unit was 1kg of live weight gain. Impact categories investigated were global warming (GW), acidification (AC), eutrophication (EU), abiotic depletion (AD), and photochemical ozone formation (PO). The total environmental impact of 1kg of live weight gain was 3.3kg CO2eq, 4.9E-2kg SO2eq, 3.1E-2kg PO4(3-)eq, 3.7E-3kg Sbeq, 1.7E-3kg C2H4eq for GW, AC, EU, AD, and PO respectively. Feed production was the main hotspot in all impact categories. Greenhouse gases responsible for GW were mainly CH4, N2O, and CO2. Ammonia was the most important source of AC, sharing about 90%. Nitrate and NH3 were the main emissions responsible for EU, whereas P and NOx showed minor contributions. Crude oil and natural gas consumption was the main source of AD. A large spectrum of pollutants had a significant impact on PO: they comprised CH4 from manure fermentation, CO2 caused by fossil fuel combustion in agricultural operations and industrial processes, ethane and propene emitted during oil extraction and refining, and hexane used in soybean oil extraction. The farm characteristics that best explained the results were fundamentally connected with performance indicators Farms showed a wide variability of results, meaning that there was wide margin for improving the environmental performance of either breeding or growing-fattening farms. The effectiveness of some mitigation measures was evaluated and the results that could be obtained by their introduction have been presented.