Secondary organic aerosol formation from a large number of reactive man-made organic compounds.
A photochemical trajectory model has been used to examine the relative propensities of a wide variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by human activities to form secondary organic aerosol (SOA) under one set of highly idealised conditions representing northwest Europe. This study applied a detailed speciated VOC emission inventory and the Master Chemical Mechanism version 3.1 (MCM v3.1) gas phase chemistry, coupled with an optimised representation of gas-aerosol absorptive partitioning of 365 oxygenated chemical reaction product species. In all, SOA formation was estimated from the atmospheric oxidation of 113 emitted VOCs. A number of aromatic compounds, together with some alkanes and terpenes, showed significant propensities to form SOA. When these propensities were folded into a detailed speciated emission inventory, 15 organic compounds together accounted for 97% of the SOA formation potential of UK man made VOC emissions and 30 emission source categories accounted for 87% of this potential. After road transport and the chemical industry, SOA formation was dominated by the solvents sector which accounted for 28% of the SOA formation potential.
Derwent
Richard G
RG
rdscientific, Newbury, Berkshire, UK. r.derwent@btopenworld.com
Jenkin
Michael E
ME
Utembe
Steven R
SR
Shallcross
Dudley E
DE
Murrells
Tim P
TP
Passant
Neil R
NR
D000336:Aerosols; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*
D000336:Aerosols; D009930:Organic Chemicals