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Published August 1993 | public
Journal Article

Mathematical Modeling of the Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds: Model Performance Using a Lumped Chemical Mechanism

Abstract

An Eulerian photochemical model is used to predict the transport and reactions of organic gas emissions to the atmosphere. The model is applied to the Los Angeles area for the August 27-29, 1987, intensive monitoring period of the Southern California Air Quality Study (SCAQS), and predictions for each of the lumped organic species in the model are evaluated using speciated organic gas concentration measurements made at nine sites. Model calculations using the official State of California emission inventory accurately predicted the observed concentrations of ethene, monoalkylbenzenes, and formaldehyde, and underpredicted the concentrations of other organic species. When the on-road vehicle hot exhaust emissions of organic gases was scaled up to approximate the actual emission rates measured in a local roadway tunnel and revisions were made to the chemical composition profiles for the organic gas emissions, model performance for both ozone and most lumped organic classes improved.

Additional Information

© 1993 American Chemical Society. Received for review September 11, 1992. Revised manuscript received March 22, 1993. Accepted March 23, 1993. The authors wish to thank Paul Allen, Bart Croes, and Eric Fujita of the California Air Resources Board for helpful discussions and for supplying SCAQS-related data. The authors thank David Chock for his detailed review of the CIT airshed model source code and helpful suggestions and comments. This research was supported initially by the Coordinating Research Council under Project SCAQS-8. Development of the respeciated VOC emission inventory and application of the model to make use of that information was supported by the Electric Power Research Institute under Agreement RP3189-3.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 19, 2023