Abstract
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in partnership with Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research embarked on the Korea-United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) study to address air quality issues over the Korean peninsula. Underestimation of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from various large facilities on South Korea’s northwest coast may contribute to this problem, and this study focuses on quantifying top-down emissions of formaldehyde (CH2O) and VOCs from the largest of these facilities, the Daesan petrochemical complex, and comparisons with the latest emission inventories. To accomplish this and additional goals discussed herein, this study employed a number of measurements acquired during KORUS-AQ onboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during three Daesan overflights on June 2, 3, and 5, 2016, in conjunction with a mass balance approach. The measurements included fast airborne measurements of CH2O and ethane from an infrared spectrometer, additional fast measurements from other instruments, and a suite of 33 VOC measurements acquired by the whole air sampler. The mass balance approach resulted in consistent top-down yearly Daesan VOC emission flux estimates, which averaged (61 ± 14) × 103 MT/year for the 33 VOC compounds, a factor of 2.9 ± 0.6 (±1.0) higher than the bottom-up inventory value. The top-down Daesan emission estimate for CH2O and its four primary precursors averaged a factor of 4.3 ± 1.5 (± 1.9) times higher than the bottom-up inventory value. The uncertainty values in parentheses reflect upper limits for total uncertainty estimates. The resulting averaged top-down Daesan emission estimate for sulfur dioxide (SO2) yielded a ratio of 0.81–1.0 times the bottom-up SO2 inventory, and this provides an important cross-check on the accuracy of our mass balance analysis.
Highlights
East Asia is a region that has experienced dramatic economic growth with consequent dramatic increases in energy consumption and air pollution
After identifying representative source signatures from these regions, Simpson et al (2020) primarily focused on volatile organic compound (VOC) sources over Seoul and their impacts on ozone formation. Such VOC sources include emissions from biogenic sources, liquefied petroleum gas, vehicle exhaust, and solvents. These sources and those from China play a large role in the air quality over the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), one cannot rule out the role that large VOC sources from power plants, manufacturing facilities, and petrochemical facilities on the west coast of Korea may periodically play in this regard, and this is the focus of this article
Four flights were dedicated to sampling plumes from various large facilities (Taean power plant, the Dangjin thermal plant, the Hyundai Steel facility, and the Daesan petrochemical complex) on South Korea’s west coast
Summary
East Asia is a region that has experienced dramatic economic growth with consequent dramatic increases in energy consumption and air pollution. Such VOC sources include emissions from biogenic sources, liquefied petroleum gas, vehicle exhaust, and solvents These sources and those from China play a large role in the air quality over the SMA, one cannot rule out the role that large VOC sources from power plants, manufacturing facilities, and petrochemical facilities on the west coast of Korea may periodically play in this regard, and this is the focus of this article. C2H6 does not pose the same health effects as CH2O, fast (1-s) continuous measurements of C2H6 and CH2O from the CAMS instrument in conjunction with other fast (1-s) measurements (to be discussed) are important in this study in identifying the Daesan emission plume bounds and in connecting the VOC results from the WAS system, which provides integrative VOC measurements over discrete sampling intervals typically in the 34–37 s range, to the full plume emissions. These plots are divided into three sampling regions: Art. 8(1), page 5 of 28
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