Modeling secondary organic aerosol formation from volatile chemical products

• Published in: Atmospheric chemistry and physics Vol. 21; no. 24; pp. 18247 - 18261
• Main Authors: Pennington, Elyse A, Seltzer, Karl M, Murphy, Benjamin N, Qin, Momei, Seinfeld, John H, Pye, Havala O T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Copernicus GmbH 16.12.2021; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Aerosol formation; Aerosols; Agricultural production; Air quality; Air quality models; Anthropogenic factors; Bias; Carbon; Chemistry; Climate change; Emission inventories; Emissions; Estimates; Laboratories; Modelling; Organic compounds; Oxidation; Oxygenation; Personal grooming; Precursors; Regional-scale models; Scale models; Secondary aerosols; Siloxanes; Urban areas; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Volatility; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 1680-7316; 1680-7324; 1680-7324
• DOI: 10.5194/acp-21-18247-2021

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) are commonly-used consumer and industrial items that are an important source of anthropogenic emissions. Organic compounds from VCPs evaporate on atmospherically relevant time scales and include many species that are secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors. However, the chemistry leading to SOA, particularly that of intermediate volatility organic compounds (IVOCs), has not been fully represented in regional-scale models such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, which tend to underpredict SOA concentrations in urban areas. Here we develop a model to represent SOA formation from VCP emissions. The model incorporates a new VCP emissions inventory and employs three new classes of emissions: siloxanes, oxygenated IVOCs, and nonoxygenated IVOCs. VCPs are estimated to produce 1.67 μg m of noontime SOA, doubling the current model predictions and reducing the SOA mass concentration bias from -75% to -58% when compared to observations in Los Angeles in 2010. While oxygenated and nonoxygenated intermediate volatility VCP species are emitted in similar quantities, SOA formation is dominated by the nonoxygenated IVOCs. Formaldehyde and SOA show similar relationships to temperature and bias signatures indicating common sources and/or chemistry. This work suggests that VCPs contribute up to half of anthropogenic SOA in Los Angeles and models must better represent SOA precursors from VCPs to predict the urban enhancement of SOA.