Adoption of SIFT-MS for VOC Pollution Monitoring in South Korea

Abstract

The pollution of air and water with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), both hazardous and odorous, is of significant concern due to impacts on human health and quality of life, as well as the environment. South Korea is a highly industrialized and densely populated nation and suffers from significant VOC and ozone pollution. In recent years, South Korea has implemented more stringent controls on industry to address air and water pollution, requiring more real-time and on-site analysis. The selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) technique has been increasingly adopted to monitor source emissions and their dispersion, enabling a more rapid response to pollution incidents. To this end, the flexibility of SIFT-MS instrumentation for both laboratory- and field-based analysis, including in mobile laboratories, has been valuable. SIFT-MS has been applied to emission source characterization, fenceline monitoring, ambient monitoring, pollution mapping, and incident response (including the use of drone-based sampling) for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), odor nuisance species, and compounds that have high ozone formation potential (OFP) and/or contribute to secondary aerosol (SOA) formation. This review summarizes the South Korean application of SIFT-MS to the monitoring of VOC pollutants.