Determination of C2 to C12 ambient air hydrocarbons in 39 US cities from 1984 through 1986

Technical Report · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5646050

Seila, R L; Lonneman, W A; Meeks, S A

Currently more than 60 urban areas are not in compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. The use of photochemical models will be necessary to forecast the nonmethane organic compound (NMOC) reductions needed to attain the NAAQS. These models require knowledge of the individual organic species in ambient air. To this end, speciated hydrocarbons were determined in over 800 ambient air samples obtained from 39 U.S. cities during 1984, 1985, and 1986. Whole-air samples were collected in electropolished, stainless steel spheres on weekdays from 6 to 9 A.M. during June through September each year. Two gas-chromatographic (GC) procedures with cryogenic sample preconcentration were employed to separate and measure C2 to C12 hydrocarbon species. Menu-driven software was developed to transfer GC data to a personal computer. The 48 compounds seen in highest concentration consisted of 25 paraffins, 15 aromatics, 7 olefins, and acetylene. Sample concentrations of the 64 most abundant species are reported.

• Research Organization: Computer Sciences Corp., Research Triangle Park, NC (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5646050
• Report Number(s): PB-89-214142/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
AIR QUALITY
CHROMATOGRAPHY
DATA
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GAS ANALYSIS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HYDROCARBONS
INFORMATION
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MANAGEMENT
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OZONE
SAMPLING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STANDARDS
URBAN AREAS
USA