Journal Article

Volatile chemical product emissions enhance ozone and modulate urban chemistry

Gkatzelis, Georgios I., Aikin, Kenneth C., Li, Meng, Arend, Mark F., Trainer, Michael, Warneke, Carsten, Ren, Xinrong, Gronoff, Guillaume, Wu, Yonghua, Dickerson, Russell R., Isaacman-VanWertz, Gabriel, McDonald, Brian C., Schwantes, Rebecca H., Wilson, Anna, Gilman, Jessica B., Campos, Teresa L., Berkoff, Timothy A., Abuhassan, Nader, McKeen, Stuart A., Moshary, Fred, Pospisilova, Veronika, Brown, Steven S., Peischl, Jeff, Coggon, Matthew M., Hurley, James F., Koss, Abigail R.

2021

Overview

Decades of air quality improvements have substantially reduced the motor vehicle emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Today, volatile chemical products (VCPs) are responsible for half of the petrochemical VOCs emitted in major urban areas. We show that VCP emissions are ubiquitous in US and European cities and scale with population density. We report significant VCP emissions for New York City (NYC), including a monoterpene flux of 14.7 to 24.4 kg · d−1 · km−2 from fragranced VCPs and other anthropogenic sources, which is comparable to that of a summertime forest. Photochemical modeling of an extreme heat event, with ozone well in excess of US standards, illustrates the significant impact of VCPs on air quality. In the most populated regions of NYC, ozone was sensitive to anthropogenic VOCs (AVOCs), even in the presence of biogenic sources. Within this VOC-sensitive regime, AVOCs contributed upwards of ∼20 ppb to maximum 8-h average ozone. VCPs accounted for more than 50% of this total AVOC contribution. Emissions from fragranced VCPs, including personal care and cleaning products, account for at least 50% of the ozone attributed to VCPs. We show that model simulations of ozone depend foremost on the magnitude of VCP emissions and that the addition of oxygenated VCP chemistry impacts simulations of key atmospheric oxidation products. NYC is a case study for developed megacities, and the impacts of VCPs on local ozone are likely similar for other major urban regions across North America or Europe.

• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Subject: "Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences" / Air Pollutants - analysis / Air Pollutants - chemistry / Air Pollution / Air quality / Anthropogenic factors / Atmospheric chemistry / Atmospheric models / Chemical compounds / Cities / Emissions / Environment Pollution / Environmental Monitoring - methods / Europe / Extreme heat / Human influences / Humans / Megacities / Models, Theoretical / Monoterpenes - analysis / Motor vehicles / New York City / Nitrogen Oxides - analysis / Nitrogen Oxides - chemistry / Odorants - analysis / Oxidation / Ozone / Petrochemicals / Photochemicals / Physical Sciences / Population Density / Social Sciences / Sustainability Science / Urban areas / Vehicle emissions / Vehicle Emissions - analysis / VOCs / Volatile organic compounds / Volatile Organic Compounds - analysis / Volatile Organic Compounds - chemistry