Journal Article

Spatial and Temporal Distributions and Sources of Anthropogenic NMVOCs in the Atmosphere of China: A Review

Lv, Shaojun, Ding, Zhijian, Du, Wei, Wang, Gehui, Wang, Fanglin

2021

Overview

As the key precursors of O 3 , anthropogenic non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) have been studied intensively. This paper performed a meta-analysis on the spatial and temporal variations of NMVOCs, their roles in photochemical reactions, and their sources in China, based on published research. The results showed that both non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs) in China have higher mixing ratios in the eastern developed cities compared to those in the central and western areas. Alkanes are the most abundant NMHCs species in all reported sites while formaldehyde is the most abundant among the OVOCs. OVOCs have the highest mixing ratios in summer and the lowest in winter, which is opposite to NMHCs. Among all NMVOCs, the top eight species account for 50%–70% of the total ozone formation potential (OFP) with different compositions and contributions in different areas. In devolved regions, OFP-NMHCs are the highest in winter while OFP-OVOCs are the highest in summer. Based on positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis, vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and solvent usage in China are the main sources for NMHCs. However, the emission trend analysis showed that solvent usage and industrial emissions will exceed vehicle exhaust and become the two major sources of NMVOCs in near future. Based on the meta-analysis conducted in this work, we believe that the spatio-temporal variations and oxidation mechanisms of atmospheric OVOCs, as well as generating a higher spatial resolution of emission inventories of NMVOCs represent an area for future studies on NMVOCs in China.

• Publisher: Science Press,Springer Nature B.V,Key Lab of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education,School of Geographic Sciences,East China Normal University,Shanghai 200241,China%Key Lab of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education,School of Geographic Sciences,East China Normal University,Shanghai 200241,China,Institute of Eco-Chongming,Shanghai 200062,China
• Subject: Alkanes / Anthropogenic factors / Atmospheric Oxidation Capacity / Atmospheric Sciences / Chemicals / Control / Earth and Environmental Science / Earth Sciences / Emission analysis / Emission inventories / Formation Mechanisms / Geophysics/Geodesy / Hydrocarbons / Industrial emissions / Meta-analysis / Meteorology / Methane / Mixing ratio / Organic compounds / Oxidation / Ozone / Ozone formation / Photochemical reactions / Photochemicals / Photochemistry / PM2.5 Pollution: Quantification Methods / Review / Simulation / Solvents / Spatial analysis / Spatial discrimination / Spatial resolution / Spatial variability / Summer / Temporal variability / Temporal variations / Trend analysis / Vehicle emissions / VOCs / Volatile organic compounds / Winter