Sources and Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds in Bangkok Office Buildings

Abstract

The study objectives were to measure concentrations and to determine sources of 13 VOCs in 17 office buildings with air conditioning systems in Bangkok. Air samples were collected on Tenax-TA sorbent tubes and analyzed by thermal desorption-gas chromatography / mass spectrometry. Building ventilation was measured with a constant injection technique using hexafluorobenzene as a tracer gas. the results show that the VOC concentrations varied significantly among the studied buildings. the most two dominant VOCs were toluene and limonene with the average concentrations of 110 and 60.5 μg m-3, respectively. Mean indoor and outdoor concentration ratios of the aromatic compounds and limonene ranged from 2.9 to 11.6, implying that indoor sources are important factor. the mean ventilation rate for the study buildings was 0.29 h-1 or 0.73 m3 h-1 m-2, which was lower than the suggested value of 2 m3 h-1 m-2 by the Thai legislation for ventilation control of special large buildings.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Emission rate; Office; Ventilation; Volatile organic compound

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-162748272-1

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2011

This document is currently not available here.

Share

 
COinS