Volatile organic compound emissions from green waste composting: Characterization and ozone formation

Emission of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) during the aerobic decomposition of orange wastes

“…Consequently their mixing ratios and fluxes, as well as their global budgets, have been widely investigated (Jacob et al, 2002;Seco et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2011;Laffineur et al, 2012). The short-chain OVOCs with high activity, such as methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone and 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol, can sequester reactive nitrogen to form peroxyacetyl nitrate and are easily photolyzed to produce free radicals such as HOx (Arnold et al, 1986;Singh et al, 1995;Atkinson, 2000), and thus influence the oxidizing capacity and ozone-forming potential of the atmosphere and contribute significantly to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (Singh et al, 1995;Seco et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2011). On the local scale, some OVOCs are primary irritants and offensive odor pollutants with very low sensory thresholds (Devos et al, 1990; Table 1), and their emission and presence in ambient air are widely regulated.…”

“…Although OVOCs are major biogenic volatile organic compounds from living plant leaves (Seco et al, 2007;Laffineur et al, 2012) or fruit (Buettner and Schieberle, 2001;Umano et al, 2002;Brat et al, 2003), as metabolites formed largely from pectin (Laffineur et al, 2012), fatty or amino acid precursors (Peterson and Reineccius, 2002), they can be formed during the decomposition or decay of organic matters such as plant litters (Isidorov and Jdanova, 2002;Gray et al, 2010), green wastes (Kumar et al, 2011) and vegetable, fruit and garden wastes (Defoer et al, 2002). Thus, OVOCs are also major non-methane organic compounds in waste gases from various waste treatment processes including transferring (Dorado et al, 2014), landfilling (Davoli et al, 2003;Dincer et al, 2006;Tassi et al, 2009) and composting (Eitzer, 1995;Smet et al, 1999;Pierucci et al, 2005;Romain et al, 2005;Staley et al, 2006;He et al, 2010;Kumar et al, 2011;Lehtinen et al, 2013).…”

“…Thus, OVOCs are also major non-methane organic compounds in waste gases from various waste treatment processes including transferring (Dorado et al, 2014), landfilling (Davoli et al, 2003;Dincer et al, 2006;Tassi et al, 2009) and composting (Eitzer, 1995;Smet et al, 1999;Pierucci et al, 2005;Romain et al, 2005;Staley et al, 2006;He et al, 2010;Kumar et al, 2011;Lehtinen et al, 2013). Emission of OVOCs from these treatment facilities may not only burst into their airborne ambient levels in the neighborhood (Davoli et al, 2003;Dincer et al, 2006) and contribute to ground-level ozone formation (Kumar et al, 2011), but also trigger complaints of sensory irritation by local residents.…”

“…For example, Gray et al (2010) found OVOCs contributed over 84% and 98% to total VOCs emitted from plant litter during abiotic and biotic decomposition, respectively. Kumar et al (2011) reported that OVOCs accounted for 83.8%-98.7% of the total VOCs emitted from green waste composting. Defoer et al (2002) also found OVOCs shared over 23% of total VOCs released during the aerobic composting process of vegetable, fruit and garden wastes.…”

“…Many previous studies have measured the composition and production of OVOCs from laboratory-controlled composting or pilot-scale landfill using different combinations of organic wastes (Smet et al, 1999;Staley et al, 2006;Kumar et al, 2011). OVOCs are present in fleshes and juices of fruits, particularly citrus (Umano et al, 2002;Brat et al, 2003).…”