Comparison of VOC emissions inventory data with source apportionment results for Houston, TX

This work reports a comparison of emissions inventory data with the volatile organic compound (VOC) source attribution results, which are the continuation of the work previously published by Buzcu and Fraser [Buzcu, B., Fraser, M.P., 2006. Source identification and apportionment of volatile organic compounds in Houston, TX. Atmospheric Environment 40, 2385–2400]. The quantitatively reconstructed emissions from a recently prepared VOC emissions inventory are compared with the receptor modeling calculations based on ambient VOC measurements. In general, the composition and the location of the sources developed from the source apportionment results were consistent with the reported industrial emissions, despite small discrepancies. The results for the nighttime data analysis showed a better agreement with the locations of the emission sources. However, distance-weighted point source emissions failed to match values from the PMF modeling on ambient data. Reported event emissions of ethene and propene from the industrial complexes have also been investigated and their effects on the calculated source contributions have been determined.