Bangkok school indoor air quality: monitoring and intervention by positive pressure fresh air system.

A PM2.5 crisis in Thailand has caused the Thai government and public to be increasingly concerned about children's exposure to PM2.5 during time in school. This study is a part of a project to create a modeled effective school indoor air quality management for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). We measured air quality and environment in 10 Bangkok school rooms, including CO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, PM10, TVOCPID, formaldehyde, airborne bacteria and fungi, and gaseous organic contaminants. The indoor-to-outdoor concentration ratios indicated that either outdoor sources or indoor + outdoor sources were the predominant contributors to PM in naturally ventilated classrooms. Meanwhile, PM levels in air-conditioned classrooms strongly depended on class activities. CO2 measurements showed that the air-conditioned classrooms had a low 0.4 per hour air change rate and total fungal counts also reached 800 CFU m-3. Analysis of gaseous organic compounds showed that the two most abundant were aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, accounting for 60% by mass concentration. Interestingly, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, a mucous membrane irritant, was detected in all study rooms. In one naturally ventilated classroom, we implemented a positive pressure fresh air system to mitigate in-class PM levels; it kept PM levels below 20 µg m-3 throughout the class day. Students reported a 20-37% increase in satisfaction with the perceived indoor environmental quality and reported reduced rates in all symptoms of the sick building syndrome after implementing the positive pressure system.

Understanding interactions in the adsorption of gaseous organic compounds to indoor materials.

We studied adsorption of organic compounds to a wide range of indoor materials, including plastics, gypsum board, carpet, and many others, under various relative humidity conditions by applying a conceptual model of the free energy of interfacial interactions of both van der Waals and Lewis acid-base (e-donor/acceptor) types. Data used for the analyses were partitioning coefficients of adsorbates between surface and gas phase obtained from three sources: our sorption experiments and two other published studies. Target organic compounds included apolars, monopolars, and bipolars. We established correlations of partitioning coefficients of adsorbates for a considered surface with the corresponding hexadecane/air partitioning coefficients of the adsorbates which are used as representative of a van der Waals descriptor instead of vapor pressure. The logarithmic adsorption coefficients of the apolars and weak bases, e.g., aliphatics and aromatics, to indoor materials linearly correlates well with the logarithmic hexadecane/air partitioning coefficients regardless of the surface polarity. The surface polarity in terms of e-donor/acceptor interactions becomes important for adsorption of the strong bases and bipolars, e.g., amines, phenols, and alcohols, to unpainted gypsum board. Under dry or humid conditions, the adsorption to flat plastic materials still linearly correlates well with the van der Waals interactions of the adsorbates, but no correlations were observed for the adsorption to fleecy or plush materials, e.g., carpet. Adsorption of highly bipolar compounds, e.g., phenol and isopropanol, is strongly affected by humidity, attributed to Lewis acid-base interactions with modified surfaces.

Investigation of gasoline distributions within petrol stations: spatial and seasonal concentrations, sources, mitigation measures, and occupationally exposed symptoms.

We measured levels of VOCs and determined the distributions of benzene concentrations over the area of two petrol stations in all three seasons. Using the concentrations and sampling positions, we created isoconcentration contour maps. The average concentrations ranged 18-1288 µg m(-3) for benzene and 12-81 µg m(-3) for toluene. The contour maps indicate that high-level contours of benzene were found not only at the fuel dispenser areas but also at the storage tank refilling points, open drainage areas where gasoline-polluted wastewater was flowing, and the auto service center located within the station area. An assessment of the benzene to toluene ratio contour plots implicates that airborne benzene and toluene near the fuel dispenser area were attributed to gasoline evaporation although one of the studied stations may be influenced by other VOC sources besides gasoline evaporation. Additionally, during the routine refilling of the underground fuel storage tanks by a tank truck, the ambient levels of benzene and toluene increased tremendously. The implementation of source control by replacing old dispensers with new fuel dispensers that have an efficient cutoff feature and increased delivery speed can reduce spatial benzene concentrations by 77%. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey among 63 service attendants in ten stations revealed that headache was the most reported health complaint with a response rate of 32%, followed by fatigue with 20%. These prominent symptoms could be related to an exposure to high benzene concentrations.

Commuter exposure to BTEX in public transportation modes in Bangkok, Thailand.

Measurements and monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been conducted in the metropolitan Bangkok. However, in-vehicle levels of VOCs are still lacking. This study investigated VOCs concentrations in four public transportation modes in Bangkok, Thailand during two rush hour periods (7:00-9:00 a.m. and 4:00-7:00 p.m.). The four modes included an air-conditioned bus (A/C bus), non-air-conditioned bus (non-A/C bus), electric sky train, and a passenger boat traveling along the canal. Comparison among three important bus routes was also studied. In-vehicle air samples were collected using charcoal sorbent tubes and then analyzed by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer. Results showed that the transportation modes significantly influenced the abundance of in-vehicle benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m,p-xylene (BTEX). Median concentrations of BTEX were 11.7, 103, 11.7, and 42.8 microg/m3 in A/C bus; 37.1, 174, 14.7, and 55.4 microg/m3 in non-A/C bus; 2.0, 36.9, 0.5, and 0.5 Cig/m3 in sky train; and 3.1, 58.5, 0.5, and 6.2 microg/m3 in boat, respectively. Wilcoxon rank sum test indicated that toluene and m,p-xylene in the sky trains were statistically lower than that in the other three modes at a p-value of 0.05. There were statistical differences in TEX concentrations among the bus routes in the non-A/C buses. In addition, the benzene to toluene ratios implied that tail-pipe emissions were important contributor to the abundance of in-vehicle VOCs.

Optimizing electrocoagulation process for the treatment of biodiesel wastewater using response surface methodology.

The production of biodiesel through a transesterification method produces a large amount of wastewater that contains high levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and oil and grease (O&G). Currently, flotation is the conventional primary treatment for O&G removal prior to biological treatments. In this study, electrocoagulation (EC) was adopted to treat the biodiesel wastewater. The effects of initial pH, applied voltage, and reaction time on the EC process for the removal of COD, O&G, and suspended solids (SS) were investigated using one factor at a time experiment. Furthermore, the Box-Behnken design, an experimental design for response surface methodology (RSM), was used to create a set of 15 experimental runs needed for optimizing of the operating conditions. Quadratic regression models with estimated coefficients were developed to describe the pollutant removals. The experimental results show that EC could effectively reduce COD, O&G, and SS by 55.43%, 98.42%, and 96.59%, respectively, at the optimum conditions of pH 6.06, applied voltage 18.2 V, and reaction time 23.5 min. The experimental observations were in reasonable agreement with the modeled values.

Influence of ammonia and carbon dioxide on the sorption of a basic organic pollutant to carpet and latex-painted gypsum board.

Sorptive interactions with indoor surfaces strongly influence indoor exposure to organic pollutants. Adsorption itself may be influenced by indoor levels of common indoor gases such as CO2, NH3, and H2O. We quantified sorption characteristics of trimethylamine (TMA) on carpet and painted wallboard, while challenging the surface with gas-phase CO2, NH3 and H2O. We show that the capacity of the carpet to sorb TMA, doubles when the CO2 mixing ratio is increased from 0 to 1000 ppm CO2 at 90% relative humidity. In contrast, NH3 decreases the surface capacity of both carpet and latex paint. Sorption of TMA to these indoor materials is primarily caused by interactions at one or more interfaces. Dissolution of TMA and aqueous acid-base chemistry appear to also contribute to the overall sorptive capacity of carpet at high relative humidity. The reduction in the distribution coefficient, k(e), in the presence of NH3 is explained by competition between TMA and NH3 molecules for sites on the substrates at low-to-medium relative humidity conditions.

Effectiveness of porous covers for control of ammonia, reduced sulfur compounds, total hydrocarbons, selected volatile organic compounds, and odor from hog manure storage lagoons.

Anaerobic lagoons are a major source of odor at concentrated animal feeding operations. Seven different kinds of artificial (geotextile and polyethylene foam) and natural (straw and redwood) permeable lagoon covers were evaluated for their potential to reduce odorous emissions generated by anaerobic waste lagoons. A novel floating sampling raft was constructed and used to simultaneously evaluate the effectiveness of lagoon covers on an operating swine waste lagoon. The air collected from the raft was evaluated for odor, total reduced sulfur (TRS) compounds, ammonia, total hydrocarbons, dimethyldisulfide, and trimethylamine. The emission rates from the lagoon were highly variable both temporally and spatially. All of the lagoon covers substantially reduced TRS emissions and odor. Geotextile fabric and a recycled foam cover exhibited the greatest reduction in total hydrocarbon emissions; natural covers were less effective. Because of consistently low emission rates of ammonia, no statistically significant reduction of ammonia emissions were observed from any of the lagoon covers.