Volume : V, Issue : X, October - 2016

Volatile Organic Compounds at a Gasoline Retail Site in the United States

Nwachukwu A. N, Dick C. H.

Abstract :

 Gasoline stations are important source of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emission especially in metropolitan cities. These VOCs react photochemically in the atmosphere leading to various health (example, cancer) and environmental hazards (ozone depletion). Growing environmental awareness has put up stringent regulations to control VOCs emission. Consequent upon this, there is often a requirement to monitor VOCs concentration from their sources; however, current VOC monitoring techniques are often of low resolution to determine their representative concentrations. In this study we used a more representative approach to measured and analyse aggregate concentrations of VOC and their individual components at a Gasoline Station in the U.S. Continuous measurement of aggregate concentrations of VOC was conducted at the site on hourly sampling basis using an in–borehole gas monitor called Gasclam whilst a Tenax TA sorbent tube incorporated into and to work in parallel with this instrumentation was used to adsorb bulk concentrations of VOCs and subsequently desorbed (for characterisation) using thermal desorption/gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (TD/GC–MS) technique. Gasclam result shows VOC in the site to range from 1555 ppm to 2155 ppm with average concentration of 1733 ppm over the monitoring period. The total concentration of adsorbed VOCs in the site is 5.23 x 102 mg/m3. Among the identified VOCs (many of which exceeded their standard limits) are those considered to be hazardous to health and the environment. Although various types of remediation have been done on this site; our result shows they were not effective. Further remediation is therefore recommended.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Nwachukwu A. N, Dick C. H. Volatile Organic Compounds at a Gasoline Retail Site in the United States International Journal of Scientific Research,Volume : 5 | Issue : 10 | October 2016

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