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Emission characteristics of VOCs emitted from consumer and commercial products and their ozone formation potential

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Abstract

The characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from several consumer and commercial products (body wash, dishwashing detergent, air freshener, windshield washer fluid, lubricant, hair spray, and insecticide) were studied and compared. The spray products were found to emit the highest amount of VOCs (~96 wt%). In contrast, the body wash products showed the lowest VOC contents (~1.6 wt%). In the spray products, 21.6–96.4 % of the VOCs were propane, iso-butane, and n-butane, which are the components of liquefied petroleum gas. Monoterpene (C10H16) was the dominant component of the VOCs in the non-spray products (e.g., body wash, 53–88 %). In particular, methanol was present with the highest amount of VOCs in windshield washer fluid products. In terms of the number of carbon, the windshield washer fluids, lubricants, insecticides, and hair sprays comprised >95 % of the VOCs in the range C2–C5. The VOCs in the range C6–C10 were predominantly found in the body wash products. The dishwashing detergents and air fresheners contained diverse VOCs from C2 to C11. Besides comprising hazardous VOCs, VOCs from consumer products were also ozone precursors. The ozone formation potential of the consumer and commercial spray products was estimated to be higher than those of liquid and gel materials. In particular, the hair sprays showed the highest ozone formation potential.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Korea Ministry of Environment by “Eco-Innovation project (411-113-013)”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul, 143-701, Republic of Korea

    Trieu-Vuong Dinh, Su-Yeon Kim, In-Young Choi, Seong-Ryong Park, Young Sunwoo & Jo-Chun Kim

  2. Research Division for Industry & Environment, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 29 Geumgu-gil, Jeongeup-si, Jeollabuk-do, 580-185, Republic of Korea

    Youn-Suk Son

  3. Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul, 143-701, Republic of Korea

    Young Sunwoo

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  1. Trieu-Vuong Dinh
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  2. Su-Yeon Kim
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  3. Youn-Suk Son
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  4. In-Young Choi
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  7. Jo-Chun Kim
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Correspondence to Jo-Chun Kim.

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Responsible editor: Constantini Samara

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Dinh, TV., Kim, SY., Son, YS. et al. Emission characteristics of VOCs emitted from consumer and commercial products and their ozone formation potential. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 9345–9355 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4092-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4092-8

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