Urban Air Quality - The Role and Importance of Monitoring VOCs

Urban Air Quality – The Role and Importance of Monitoring VOCs

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates poor urban air quality accounts for 7 million deaths per year. Unless poor air quality can be addressed, death rates will continue to rise.

Photochemical and sulfurous smog differ not only in composition but on the weather conditions that give rise to them. Photochemical smog occurs in hot sunny conditions, and peaks in the afternoon. Sulfurous smog is worse in cold damp atmospheres, peaking at dawn. Pollution may also be carried by the wind into a city, most notably smoke caused by the burning of vegetation or from power station emissions.

Clean Air

Our atmosphere is dynamic. Biological, physical, and chemical processes contribute to clean air, a gas mixture that is remarkably well balanced for life and free of toxic gases and particulates. With the exception of halocarbons and a few inert gases, the concentration of gases in the atmosphere is in constant flux and is dynamically mediated by living processes. More so, they are often at an optimal level for life. Oxygen is balanced at a concentration that enables aerobic organisms, such as us, to breathe easily while not too high to cause unquenchable forest fires. Carbon dioxide is plentiful enough for plants to grow, both as a source of carbon and in retaining sufficient warmth from the sun. Elements essential for life such as sulfur and iodine are transported from land to sea in the form of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Many gases, which are toxic or harmful to life are removed by chemical and physical adsorption on solid particles (particulates), which ultimately fall out of the air under gravity as dust or rain. However, through a series of chemical reactions, including reactions with sunlight (photochemical reactions), the atmosphere is kept almost completely free of specific VOCs released by plants, providing a wider advantage. For example, it has been recently established that bruised leaves release VOC messengers (pheromones) that attract predators of leaf-eating insects!

”People living near many large scale facilities or industrial refineries could be exposed to hazardous air pollutants every day, if correct measures are not put in place. Indeed, refinery flares release a number of climate-warming gases along with toxic and cancer-causing pollutants, contirbuting to smog and pose health risks to surrounding communities. A 2016 study found that children living near a refinery in Texas City, Texas experienced neurological problems, diarrhoea, trouble breathing, and other health impacts due to exposure to benzene, a known carcinogen, after a flaring incident.
SalonNew federal data shows oil refineries across the U.S. are releasing benzene into nearby neighborhoods

Human Impact on Air Quality

Gases and particulates arising from human activity face exactly the same processes as those naturally: either photochemically oxidized and-or forming and condensing on particulates, which ultimately fall out as dust or rain. However, the sheer volume of certain ‘primary pollutants’ discharged by human activity can be hazardous, as well as in generating ‘secondary pollutants’ through various reactions. Also, high concentrations of VOCs, for example, when released into the air, may ‘overwhelm’ very low concentrations of highly reactive atmospheric cleansing agents in air, such as OH and NO_3, allowing them to remain unchanged for longer times than they would in cleaner air.

Primary pollutants, released directly into the atmosphere, include:

NO and NO₂ (‘NO_x’), mainly from vehicle exhaust and coal-fired power stations.
SO₂ and SO₃ (‘SO_x’), primarily from sulfurous coal-burning stoves and power stations.
CO from vehicle exhaust, wood, and coal burning.
VOCs, apart from methane, from the following sources:
– Unburnt hydrocarbons from vehicles. This pollutant is eliminated with legislation ensuring catalytic conversion of unburnt hydrocarbons.
– Solvent release and spills. These may arise from poorly controlled industrial plant processes, fugitive emissions, and spillages, but also a feature of urban pollution due to the volatilization of solvents in domestic products such as cleaners and polishes.
– Terpenes from forest fires.

Secondary pollutants, resulting from reactions of sunlight on NO_x and VOCs, are:

Ozone (O₃), which in the lower atmosphere is very harmful to all lifeforms.
Aldehydes such as formaldehyde, a harmful biocide.
Peroxyacyl nitrates (PANs).
A resultant photochemical or ‘Los Angeles’ smog, comprising particulates often containing metal oxides, nitric acid, PAN, dissolved VOC’s, and SVOC’s.
Sulfurous or ‘London’ smog, formed from sulfurous coal burning, comprising water, ash, PAH’s, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid.
Acid rain is a secondary pollutant, formed by reactions of rain droplets with NO_x and SO_x.

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“Urban Air Quality – The Role and Importance of Monitoring VOCs”

Urban air pollution is linked with increased levels of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates poor urban air quality accounts for 7 million deaths per year. Currently half of the world’s population live in urban areas and 1.5 million people are added to the global urban population every week. Unless poor air quality can be addressed, death rates will continue to rise.

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Comparative specifications
Sensor Variant	MiniPID 2 PPM WR VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 PPM VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 PPB WR VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 PPB VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 HS VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 10.0 eV VOC Sensor	MiniPID 2 11.7 eV VOC Sensor
Electrode Stack Colour	Blue	Blue	White	White	Red	White + Gold Spot	White
Minimum Detection Limit	500 ppb	100 ppb	20 ppb	1 ppb	0.5 ppb	5 ppb	100 ppb
Range	0 to >10,000 ppm	0 to 4000 ppm	0 to >200 ppm	0 to >40 ppm	0 to >3 ppm	0 to >100 ppm	0 to >100 ppm
Response Time T90 (s)	<3	<3	<8	<8	<12	<8	<8
Sensitivity	>0.4 mV/ppm @ 100ppm	>0.65 mV/ppm @ 100 ppm	>5 mV/ppm	>30 mV/ppm	>600 mV/ppm	>15 mV/ppm	>1 mV/ppm
Lamp Energy	10.6 eV	10.6 eV	10.6 eV	10.6 eV	10.6 eV	10.0 eV	11.7 eV
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