VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS MEASUREMENT IN THE BOUNDARY OF WASTE TREATMENT FACILITIES

Abstract

Concentrations of the principal volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p,o-xylene, styrene, and chlorobenzene were measured at the solid waste treatment plants classified into four categories; municipal waste incinerator, municipal waste landfill site, industrial waste incinerator and industrial waste landfill site. The average concentration of VOCs in industrial waste treatment facilities was 33.43 ppb and was significantly higher than that measured at municipal waste treatment facilities (4.71 ppb). The average toluene concentrations measured at incinerators (13.05 ppb) were a little higher than those measured at landfill sites (11.54 ppb). The contribution of the waste treatment facilities to the concentration of benzene (0.35 ppb) and o-xylene (0.15 ppb) in the industrial area was relatively small. However, toluene measured in the industrial waste treatment facilities was the most abundant VOCs with the average concentration of 21.37 ppb. As a result of analyses of fingerprint, in cases of IISH and ILUS, a variety of compounds other than major VOCs were detected in high level. On the Pearson correlation analysis, the correlation was generally positive and some pairs of these VOCs were very strongly correlated (correlation coefficient > 0.75).