Ground-level Ozone Formation Research Articles

China targets health-harming ozone

China is expanding its air-quality improvement effort to address volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are responsible for the formation of fine particulate matter and ground-level ozone, each of which causes health problems. China already shuttered thousands of steel, chemical, and power plants in the northern part of the country. According to an annual report on the country’s environmental status issued in May by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), average concentrations of airborne particulates dropped around 20% and sulfur dioxide plunged 44% from 2015 to 2018 in 338 Chinese cities. Ground-level ozone, however, remains a significant problem. It increased roughly 13% across the 338 cities from 2015 to 2018. Thus comes the new focus on VOCs, which are released from burning fuel such as gasoline, wood, coal, or natural gas. VOCs also come from many consumer products and industrial production processes, including many that use chemical solvents. The varied

Investigation of gaseous pollutants in residential-industrial area: Ambient levels, temporal variation and health risk assessment

Introduction: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the ambient concentration levels of ground-level ozone (GLO), nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide with temporal variations and to determine the risk of exposure to their pollutant on public people living in this area. Materials and methods: In the present study, GLO, NOx and SO2 concentrations were monitored using an ambient analyzer during the period of April to September 2018. Results: The obtained results demonstrated that the average concentrations of SO2, NO2 and GLO in the INZ station was significantly greater than the two other evaluated stations (i.e. SHV and CMC). The corresponding values for the measured parameters in INZ station was almost 8.9, 7.2 and 11.9 times higher than those in SHV station, however, 4.8, 5.3 and 2.9 times greater than of ones in CMC station, respectively. The average values of SO2 and NO2 concentrations in the INZ varied from 97.2 to 128.1 μg/m3 in the evening hours and from 50.2 to 62.3 μg/m3 in the morning hours respectively. Also, the lowest concentration of NO2 was observed during afternoon hours when GLO showed a peak. The maximum pikes of GLO concentration were observed at 13:00 PM with 249.3 μg/m3. Results of human health risk assessment indicated acceptable risk (hazard quotient (HQ) values˂ 1) for non-carcinogenic adverse health effect. Conclusion: The findings in the present study can be useful in developing control-based strategies for primary pollutant emissions, and also GLO formation, improve air quality and reducing possible risks on human health. Policymakers should enforce the limits on the release of pollutants into the atmosphere in the study area by strengthening existing legislation.

Abatement of gaseous volatile organic compounds: A process perspective

Abstract Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a class of liquid compounds with low saturation vapor pressures, which enables them to change phases even at ambient conditions. This causes a huge problem when it comes to emissions. A large portion of VOCs cause catastrophic health effects such as cancer or liver damage even at very low concentrations (ppm), and the control of these compounds is vital in ensuring good air quality. Many VOCs are used in common household implements such as wood finishes or paints and can even be emitted off improperly ventilated cooking. This significantly alters indoor air quality, and as such, a large portion of research into these compounds have focused on indoor air. On the other hand, their widespread use as solvents in most industries along with their emission rates from vehicular exhausts results in contamination of outdoor air as well. The combination of these VOCs and NOx pollutants tends to cause ground level ozone formation, which has a large bio-toxicity and causes the formation of a smog. Densely populated cities have also seen a sharp rise in VOC emissions due to the increase in both vehicular traffic and industrialization. A myriad of options is available for the abatement of VOCs, and they are similar to other pollution control strategies. These methods can be broadly be classified into destruction, separation and hybrid methods. This review discusses the different perspectives to be considered for this scenario, along with descriptions of the different methods available to the industry, along with some novel technologies that have been introduced recently. The influential parameters for each method have been investigated, along with optimum catalyst/material selection. In addition to this, a mathematical modeling perspective has also been examined, with significance to simulation studies performed for the control of VOC emission technologies.

Isoprene and monoterpenes over Russia and their impacts in tropospheric ozone formation

Ground-based levels of important biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), isoprene and monoterpenes, as well as NO x and O 3 measured simultaneously along the Trans-Siberian railway on a mobile railway laboratory in TROICA-12 campaign in summer 2008 are analyzed. It was shown that the highest isoprene (≥ 2.5 ppb) concentration was observed in the daytime in the Far East region where several favorable factors for its emissions occurred: a large amount of deciduous forests, high temperatures (>28°C) and light conditions. Maximum levels of monoterpenes (up to 3-9 ppb) along the Trans-Siberian railway were observed during the nighttime in the Ural region and in Central Siberia where coniferous vegetation is located. To evaluate the relative importance of isoprene and monoterpenes in ground-level ozone formation in Russian cities along the Trans-Siberian railway, where high NO x concentration leads to tropospheric ozone generation, daytime ozone-forming potential (OFP) was calculated. The chemical losses of the studied BVOCs during their transport from sources to the measurement point were taken into account. Calculated OFPs due to isoprene (OFP iso ) and monoterpenes (OFP mono ) along the Trans-Siberian railway are in average 15±13 and 18±25 ppbv of ozone, respectively. The highest OFP iso (up to 40 ppbv) were estimated in Central Siberia and in the Far East. OFP mono was the highest in the regions of coniferous vegetation, Ural and Central Siberia, and reached 80 ppbv. In the most cities along the Trans-Siberian railway, where high NO x concentration (10-20 ppbv) along with high daytime temperatures (>25°C) were observed, monoterpenes made a main contribution to tropospheric ozone formation. Only in the Far East cities, where the largest deciduous vegetation area of the Trans-Siberian railway is located, isoprene played the main role in tropospheric ozone generation. It was also noted that OFP iso increases with the population-size of the cities. It can be either due to the greater proportion of deciduous vegetation in the large cities along the Trans-Siberian railway or due to the impact of anthropogenic isoprene source. OFP mono the lowest in the medium cities and the highest in the small ones.

A novel bagging ensemble approach for predicting summertime ground-level ozone concentration

ABSTRACTOzone pollution appears as a major air quality issue, e.g. for the protection of human health and vegetation. Formation of ground level ozone is a complex photochemical phenomenon and involves numerous intricate factors most of which are interrelated with each other. Machine learning techniques can be adopted to predict the ground level ozone. The main objective of the present study is to develop the state-of-the-art ensemble bagging approach to model the summer time ground level ozone in an industrial area comprising a hazardous waste management facility. In this study, the feasibility of using ensemble model with seven meteorological parameters as input variables to predict the surface level O3 concentration. Multilayer perceptron, RTree, REPTree, and Random forest were employed as the base learners. The error measures used for checking the performance of each model includes IoAd, R2, and PEP. The model results were validated against an independent test data set. Bagged random forest predicted the ground level ozone better with higher Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient 0.93. This study scaffolded the current research gap in big data analysis identified with air pollutant prediction.Implications: The main focus of this paper is to model the summer time ground level O3 concentration in an Industrial area comprising of hazardous waste management facility. Comparison study was made between the base classifiers and the ensemble classifiers. Most of the conventional models can well predict the average concentrations. In this case the peak concentrations are of importance as it has serious effect on human health and environment. The models developed should also be homoscedastic.

Selected air pollutants in urban and rural areas, under the influence of power plants

The operation of large power plants, including power stations, and combined heat and power stations, causes the emission of significant amounts of gaseous pollutants into the environment. As a result, in the urban and agricultural areas occurs a pollution of undesirable gaseous substances, such as nitrogen and sulfur oxides. This is especially dangerous for living organisms, soil and water, because, in combination with water vapor, these pollutants are the cause of acid rain. In addition, nitrogen oxides participate in the formation of ground-level ozone, which affects both human health and the condition of existing vegetation. Therefore, the distribution of air pollutants (NO2, SO2 and O3) in the selected urban and rural areas, under the influence of power plants, located in the Lodz Voivodeship, in Poland, in Central-Eastern Europe, was analyzed for a 10-year period (2007–2016). As a result, it was possible to evaluate the impact of the entry into force of Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 “on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe” on the changes in emissions and concentrations of pollutants in selected locations. As a result of the analysis, a significant decrease in the concentration of SO2 (by 75% in the urban area and by 59% in the rural area), and small changes (from - 8% to + 12%) in NO2 and O3 concentrations in ambient air were found. This indicates the effectiveness of actions aimed at reducing SO2 emissions, however the influence of the power plants on the concentration of air pollutants in these areas is not clear. At the same time, considering the criterion of permissible concentration of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, although the air quality did not improve, the air quality index can be considered as being in the category of "good".

Time effects of high particulate events on the critical conversion point of ground-level ozone

Particulate matter (PM), especially those with an aerodynamic particle size of less than 10 μm (PM10), is typically emitted from transboundary forest fires. A large-scale forest fire may contribute to a haze condition known as a high particulate event (HPE), which has affected Southeast Asia, particularly Peninsular Malaysia, for a long time. Such event can alter the photochemical reactions of secondary pollutants. This work investigates the influence of PM on ground-level ozone (O3) formation during HPE. Five continuous air quality monitoring stations from different site categories (i.e., industrial, urban and background) located across Peninsular Malaysia were selected in this study during the HPEs in 2013 and 2014. Result clearly indicated that O3 concentrations were significantly higher during HPE than during non-HPE in all the sites. The O3 diurnal variation in each site exhibited a similar pattern, whereas the magnitudes of variation during HPE and non-HPE differed. Light scattering and atmospheric attenuation were proven to be associated with HPE, which possibly affected O3 photochemical reactions during HPE. Critical conversion time was used as the main determining factor when comparing HPE and non-HPE conditions. A possible screening effect that resulted in the shifting of the critical transformation point caused a delay of approximately of 15–30 min. The shifting was possibly influenced by the attenuation of sunlight in the morning during HPE. A negative correlation between O3 and PM10 was observed during the HPE in Klang in 2013 and 2014, with −0.87. Essentially, HPE with a high PM concentration altered ground-level O3 formation.

On-Road Chemical Transformation as an Important Mechanism of NO2 Formation.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) not only is linked to adverse effects on the respiratory system but also contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Our curbside monitoring data analysis in Detroit, MI, and Atlanta, GA, strongly suggests that a large fraction of NO2 is produced during the "tailpipe-to-road" stage. To substantiate this finding, we designed and carried out a field campaign to measure the same exhaust plumes at the tailpipe-level by a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS) and at the on-road level by an electric vehicle-based mobile platform. Furthermore, we employed a turbulent reacting flow model, CTAG, to simulate the on-road chemistry behind a single vehicle. We found that a three-reaction (NO-NO2-O3) system can largely capture the rapid NO to NO2 conversion (with time scale ≈ seconds) observed in the field studies. To distinguish the contributions from different mechanisms to near-road NO2, we clearly defined a set of NO2/NO x ratios at different plume evolution stages, namely tailpipe, on-road, curbside, near-road, and ambient background. Our findings from curbside monitoring, on-road experiments, and simulations imply the on-road oxidation of NO by ambient O3 is a significant, but so far ignored, contributor to curbside and near-road NO2.

Isoprene Emissions and Ozone Formation in Urban Conditions: A Case Study in the City of Rio de Janeiro.

The potential role of isoprene oxidative processes, as well as the possible impact of air pollution on isoprene emissions, are more important in tropical cities, surrounded by rainforests. In this study, the contribution of isoprene to ozone formation was determined considering different scenarios, mainly volatile organic compounds/NO x (VOC/NO x ) ratios, and typical atmospheric conditions for the city of Rio de Janeiro, where more than 36% of the urbanized area is covered by vegetation. Ozone isopleths and incremental reactivity coefficients (IR) were evaluated to understand the direct contribution of isoprene to ground-level ozone formation and the negative impact of anthropogenic NO x emissions on the natural atmospheric balance. Although isoprene accounted for only 2.7% of the total VOC mass, excluding the isoprene concentration from the model reduced the maximum ozone value by 14.1%. The calculated IR coefficient (grams of O3 formed per gram of added isoprene) was 2.2 for a VOC/NO x ratio of 8.86.

Aromatic volatile organic compounds and their role in ground-level ozone formation in Russia

This paper reports proton mass spectrometry data on aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (benzene, toluene, phenol, styrene, xylene, and propylbenzene) obtained in different Russian regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, based on expedition data retrieved using the TRO-ICA-12 mobile laboratory in the summer of 2008. The contribution of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation in the cities and regions along the measurement route has been estimated quantitatively. The greatest contribution of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation is characteristic of large cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway (up to 7.5 ppbv O3) specified by the highest concentrations of aromatic VOCs (1–1.7 ppbv) and nitrogen oxides (>20 ppbv). The results obtained are indicative of a considerable contribution (30–50%) of anthropogenic emissions of VOCs to photochemical ozone generation in the large cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway in hot and dry weather against the background of a powerful natural factor such as isoprene emissions controlling the regional balance of ground-level ozone in warm seasons.

The Relationship between Daily Maximum Temperature and Daily Maximum Ground Level Ozone Concentration

Ground-level ozone is one of the dominant criteria pollutants that contribute to unhealthy days in ambient air measurements throughout Malaysia. In addition to VOCs and NOx, meteorological factors such as insolation and temperature influence the formation of ground-level ozone. For this reason, the relationship between daily maximum temperature and variation of ground-level ozone concentrations using 10 years of data (2000-10, excluding 2008) was scrutinized statistically at two stations representing urban and industrial areas in Terengganu State, Malaysia. We found that there is a positive linear correlation between maximum daily temperature and maximum daily ozone concentration with correlation coefficients of 0.684 and 0.605 for urban and industrial areas, respectively. Nevertheless, the long-term variation of daily maximum temperature and daily maximum ozone concentration for these two stations shows that the levels were higher in the industrial rather than the urban area. The results indicate that surrounding activities and temperature play vital roles in influencing ground-level ozone concentrations in Terengganu. Furthermore, ozone concentrations are highest for air masses characterized by dry, warm conditions during the southwest monsoon and are usually associated with the generation of haze episodes in the Malaysian Peninsula.

On the summertime air quality and related photochemical processes in the megacity Shanghai, China.

Summertime surface ozone (O3) and related secondary formation of fine particles are the major air quality concerns in the megacity of Shanghai. We performed mobile Cavity Enhanced Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (CE-DOAS) measurements to investigate the spatial distribution of on-road nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations along the Inner Ring Elevated Road (IRER) in Shanghai. The observations show a ratio of 4 between CE-DOAS averaged on-road NO2 and the in-situ ambient measurements, illustrating the strong impact of vehicle emissions over the urban area. The air mass transport analysis suggests that the observed episodic ozone events arise from both the abundance of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) precursors in the sampled plume and the regional transport of ozone-rich air masses. Analysis of the sources of PM2.5 shows that the secondary heterogeneous gas-to-particle conversion of sulfate and nitrate from sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) is the largest source of PM2.5 contributing 44.8±9.2% of the total PM2.5. Ozone-related photochemical formation of fine particles is estimated to contribute about 22.5±11.9% of the total PM2.5, which is strongly facilitated by solar radiation in summer. According to our results, nitrous acid (HONO) is the major precursor of hydroxyl radicals (OH) accounting for 40% to 80% of the total OH production during daytime. A significant correlation is found between the HONO levels in the early morning and the daily O3 and PM2.5 levels. The summertime measurements indicate that the photolytic reaction of HONO after sunrise increased the abundance of daytime OH and oxidative capacity, resulting in an enhancement of ground level ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation. This study provides quantitative information to better understand photochemical formation of ozone and fine particles in Shanghai during summertime, which is useful for designing collaborative strategies to mitigate emissions of precursor pollutants.

Trend and variability of atmospheric ozone over middle Indo-Gangetic Plain: impacts of seasonality and precursor gases.

Ozone dynamics in two urban background atmospheres over middle Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) were studied in two contexts: total columnar and ground-level ozone. In terms of total columnar ozone (TCO), emphases were made to compare satellite-based retrieval with ground-based observation and existing trend in decadal and seasonal variation was also identified. Both satellite-retrieved (Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument-Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (OMI-DOAS)) and ground-based observations (IMD-O3) revealed satisfying agreement with OMI-DOAS observation over predicting TCO with a positive bias of 7.24% under all-sky conditions. Minor variation between daily daytime (r=0.54; R 2=29%; n=275) and satellite overpass time-averaged TCO (r=0.58; R 2=34%; n=208) was also recognized. A consistent and clear seasonal trend in columnar ozone (2005-2015) was noted with summertime (March-June) maxima (Varanasi, 290.9±8.8; Lucknow, 295.6±9.5DU) and wintertime (December-February) minima (Varanasi, 257.4±10.1; Lucknow, 258.8±8.8DU). Seasonal trend decomposition based on locally weighted regression smoothing technique identified marginally decreasing trend (Varanasi, 0.0084; Lucknow, 0.0096DUyear-1) especially due to reduction in monsoon time minima and summertime maxima. In continuation to TCO, variation in ground-level ozone in terms of seasonality and precursor gases were also analysed from September 2014 to August 2015. Both stations registered similar pattern of variation with Lucknow representing slightly higher annual mean (44.3±30.6; range, 1.5-309.1μg/m3) over Varanasi (38.5±17.7; range, 4.9-104.2μg/m3). Variation in ground-level ozone was further explained in terms water vapour, atmospheric boundary layer height and solar radiation. Ambient water vapour content was found to associate negatively (r=-0.28, n=284) with ground-level ozone with considerable seasonal variation in Varanasi. Implication of solar radiation on formation of ground-level ozone was overall positive (Varanasi, 0.60; Lucknow, 0.26), while season-specific association was recorded in case of atmospheric boundary layer.

Investigation of NOx reduction activity of Rh/ZnO nanowires catalyst

The main pollutant exhaust emissions from gasoline engines are HCs, CO, and NOx. Today, the removal of NOx known to cause the formation of ground-level ozone, acid rain and smog is the most significant issue. The stringent emission regulations require that the emission of NOx is limited. In this study, the catalyst was prepared by impregnating Rh on the ZnO NWs grown on monolith cordierite channels in order to investigate in particular its NOx reduction activity and potential of ZnO nanowire structures to be used as monolith catalyst carrier. ZnO nanowire arrays have different morphology and effective porosity. Furthermore, thickness of ZnO nanowire arrays are less than traditional wash coat. Therefore, the ZnO nanowire arrays can be used as alternative monolith catalyst carrier. The structure of the catalyst was examined by SEM and XRD. Activity tests were performed under lean, stoichiometric and rich conditions in order to examine specifically NOx reduction activity of the finished catalyst. The NO reduction activity of the Rh/ZnO NWs catalyst decreases with the increasing oxygen in the gas mixture. This situation is expected in case of excessive oxygen in TWC reactions.

Ambient volatile organic compounds pollution in China

Owing to rapid economic and industrial development, China has been suffering from degraded air quality and visibility. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors to the formation of ground-level ozone and hence photochemical smog. Some VOCs adversely affect human health. Therefore, VOCs have recently elicited public concern and given new impetus to scientific interest. China is now implementing a series of polices to control VOCs pollution. The key to formulating policy is understanding the ambient VOCs pollution status. This paper mainly analyzes the species, levels, sources, and spatial distributions of VOCs in ambient air. The results show that the concentrations of ambient VOCs in China are much higher than those of developed countries such as the United States and Japan, especial benzene, which exceeds available standards. At the same time, the ozone formation potential (OFP) and secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP) of various VOCs are calculated. Aromatics and alkenes have much higher OFPs, while aromatics have higher SOAFP. The OFPs of ambient VOCs in the cities of Beijing, Guangzhou and Changchun are very high, and the SOAFP of ambient VOCs in the cities of Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Changchun are higher.

Indoor ozone and climate change

It has been anticipated that climate change impacts ambient air pollution and thereby affects indoor air quality through ventilation. Yet, it is not clear how a changing climate, along with new developed interior building materials, products, and air cleaners, affects indoor air quality, and how to minimize negative effects. In this paper, ozone, as one of the greenhouse gases, has been selected to examine the photochemical mechanism for the explanation of ground level changes in the outdoors. The effects of temperature and precursors on ground level ozone formation have been discussed. Ozone concentration changes for different regions within Canada in recent 20 years are examples to demonstrate the trend of ozone levels in the future. In addition, the indoor sources contributing to the ozone levels are characterized. Moreover, this paper explores the feasibility of photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) technology based air cleaners for indoor ozone removal with the objectives of providing reliable technology and updating the literature.

Photochemical model evaluation of the ground-level ozone impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health in the Alberta oil sands region: Using present and future emission scenarios

One of the potential environmental issues associated with oil sands development is increased ozone formation resulting from NOX and volatile organic compound emissions from bitumen extraction, processing and upgrading. To manage this issue in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in northeast Alberta, a regional multi-stakeholder group, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), developed an Ozone Management Framework that includes a modelling based assessment component. In this paper, we describe how the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to assess potential ground-level ozone formation and impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health for three different ozone precursor cases in the AOSR. Statistical analysis methods were applied, and the CMAQ performance results met the U.S. EPA model performance goal at all sites. The modelled 4th highest daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentrations in the base and two future year scenarios did not exceed the Canada-wide standard of 65 ppb or the newer Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards of 63 ppb in 2015 and 62 ppb in 2020. Modelled maximum 1-h ozone concentrations in the study were well below the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective of 82 ppb in all three cases. Several ozone vegetation exposure metrics were also evaluated to investigate the potential impact of ground-level ozone on vegetation. The chronic 3-months SUM60 exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline range (0–2000 ppb-hr) everywhere in the AOSR. The AOT40 ozone exposure metric predicted by CMAQ did not exceed the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) threshold of concern of 3000 ppb-hr in any of the cases but is just below the threshold in high-end future emissions scenario. In all three emission scenarios, the CMAQ predicted W126 ozone exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline threshold of 4000 ppb-hr. This study outlines the use of photochemical modelling of the impact of an industry (oil sands) on ground-level ozone levels as an air quality management tool in the AOSR. It allows an evaluation of the relationships between the pollutants emitted to the atmosphere and potential ground level ozone concentrations throughout the AOSR thereby extending the spatial coverage of the results beyond the monitoring network and also allowing an assessment of the potential impacts of possible future emission cases.

Effect of Ambient Temperature on Total Organic Gas Speciation Profiles from Light-Duty Gasoline Vehicle Exhaust.

Total organic gases (TOG) emissions from motor vehicles include air toxic compounds and contribute to formation of ground-level ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). These emissions are known to be affected by temperature; however previous studies have typically focused only on the temperature dependence of total emission factors and select toxic compounds. This study builds on the previous research by performing an evaluation of a comprehensive set of gas-phase organic compounds present in gasoline motor vehicle exhaust. A fleet of five vehicles using port fuel injection engine technology and running on E10 fuel was tested. Overall, three temperatures (0, 20, and 75 °F; or -18, -7, and 24 °C), two driving conditions (urban-FTP75 and aggressive driving-US06) and 161 compounds were evaluated; the emissions distributions were used to construct speciation profiles for each driving cycle and temperature. Overall, the speciation results indicated a significant increase in alkane and methane content, and decrease in alcohol, aldehyde and ketone content with decreasing temperature. These were verified using a statistical significance test. The fraction and composition of Mobile Source Air Toxics (MSATs) were significantly affected by temperature for both driving cycles. The ozone forming potentials of these profiles were evaluated using the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) scale. Aromatic content was predicted to be a major driver behind the ozone forming potentials. Additionally, the decreasing ozone potential could be attributed to increased methane fractions with increasing temperature.

Contribution of solvents from road marking paints to tropospheric ozone formation

Solventborne road marking paints are meaningful sources of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which under solar irradiation affect formation of tropospheric ozone, a signif cant pulmonary irritant and a key pollutant responsible for smog formation. Influence of particular VOCs on ground-level ozone formation potential, quantified in Maximum Incremental Reactivities (MIR), were used to calculate potential contribution of solvents from road marking paints used in Poland to tropospheric ozone formation. Based on 2014 data, limited only to roads administered by General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA), emissions of VOCs from road marking paints in Poland were about 494 838 kg, which could lead to production of up to 1 003 187 kg of ropospheric ozone. If aromatic-free solventborne paints based on ester solvents, such as are commonly used in Western Europe, were utilised, VOC emissions would not be lowered, but potentially formed ground-level ozone could be limited by 50-70%. Much better choice from the perspective of environmental protection would be the use of waterborne road marking paints like those mandated in Scandinavia – elimination of up to 82% of the emitted VOCs and up to 95% of the potentially formed tropospheric ozone could be achieved.

Catalytic Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds

The degradation of air quality by the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air particularly harms human health and our environment. [...]