Analysis of VOC emissions using PCA/APCS receptor model at city of Shanghai, China

Qualification of the sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their effects on city air pollution are crucial issues to develop an effective air pollution control strategy in many polluted large cities of China. In this study, the VOC concentrations measured in Shanghai, China from 2006 to 2008 are analyzed. A receptor model (PCA/APCS; Principal Component Analysis/Absolute Principal Component Scores) is applied for identifying the contributions of individual VOC sources to VOC concentrations. Using the PCA/APCS technique, five and four surrogated VOC sources are classified in the center of Shanghai city in summer and in winter. In summer, the five VOC sources include PCs1 (liquefied petroleum gas/natural gas leakage and gasoline evaporation), PCs2 (vehicle related emissions), PCs3 (solvent usages), PCs4 (industrial productions), and PCs5 (biomass/biofuel/coal burning and other natural sources). In winter, the four VOC sources include PCw1 (liquefied petroleum gas/natural gas leakage and gasoline evaporation), PCw2 (solvent usages and industrial productions), PCw3 (vehicle related emissions), and PCw4 (biomass/biofuel/coal burning). The result suggests that during summer, 24, 28, 17, 18, and 13% of the measured VOC concentrations were estimated due to the PCs1, PCs2, PCs3, PCs4, and PCs5 VOC sources, respectively. During winter, 17, 48, 23, and 12% of the measured VOC concentrations were attributed to the PCw1, PCw2, PCw3, and PCw4 VOC sources, respectively. For aromatic concentrations, 35% of the concentrations were resulted from solvent usage (PCs3), following by industrial productions (PCs4) of 27%, and vehicle emissions (PCs2) of 19%. For alkene concentrations, the two largest contributors were due to gasoline industrial and vehicle emissions in both summer and winter. For alkane concentrations, the largest sources were due to gasoline industrial emissions (PCs1) and vehicle emissions (PCs2) in summer. In winter, vehicle emissions (PCw3), solvent usages/industrial productions (PCw2), and gasoline industrial emissions (PCw1) were the major sources. For halo-hydrocarbon concentrations, biomass/biofuel/coal burning and other natural sources were the major sources in both summer and winter.