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Module 6: Air Pollutants and Control Techniques - Volatile Organic Compounds - Characteristics

Features

Lesson Material
Practice Problems

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Objective

  1. Describe the characteristics of volatile organic compounds.
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Lesson Material

The majority of anthropogenic VOCs released into the atmosphere are from transportation sources and industrial processes utilizing solvents such as surface coating (paints), printing (inks), and petrochemical processing (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that can volatilize and participate in photochemical reactions when the gas stream is released to the ambient air. Almost all of the organic compounds used as solvents and as chemical feedstock are VOCs. A list of those few organic compounds that are not considered to be VOCs is provided in Table 1. Other organic compounds are considered to be VOCs.

Table 1

Many of the air toxic compounds included in Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 are volatile organic compounds (discussed in Module 7). In these cases, the emissions are regulated as both air toxic compounds and VOCs.

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Practice Problems
Volatile Organic Compounds - Characteristics

Instructions:
Complete the Practice Problems before proceeding to the next section. Click on the button below.
Practice Problems
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Volatile Organic Compounds:
Formation Mechanisms

 

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