Method to establish the emission inventory of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds in China and its application in the period 2008-2012

- A recognized method to establish the VOC emission inventory in China was proposed.
- A four-level source classification and corresponding EFs database were developed.
- China's VOC emissions had increased from 22.45 Tg in 2008 to 29.85 Tg in 2012.
- Industrial process, transportation and solvent utilization are key VOC sources.
- Highly polluted areas have expanded in 2008-2012, forming polluted city clusters.

A method was developed to establish a comprehensive anthropogenic VOC emission inventory in China, in which a four-level source categorization was proposed, and an emission factor determination system together with a reference database were developed. And this was applied to establish VOC emission inventories for the period 2008-2012. Results show China's anthropogenic VOC emissions increased from 22.45 Tg in 2008 to 29.85 Tg in 2012 at an annual average rate of 7.38%, with Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hebei provinces being the largest emitters. Industrial processes, transportation and solvent utilization were the key sources, accounting for 39.3%, 25.6%, and 14.9% of the total emissions in 2012, respectively. Passenger cars, biofuel combustion, coke production, field burning of biomass, and raw chemical manufacturing were the primary VOC sources nationwide. The key sources for each province were different because of the disparate industry and energy structure. China's VOC emissions displayed remarkable spatial variation, with emissions in the east and southeast regions being much larger than in the northwest, and the high emission areas mainly centered in the Bohai Economic Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Sichuan Basin. The size of high emission areas expanded over the period 2008-2012, with heavily polluted city clusters gradually emerging.