Abstract. Non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) are
important ozone and secondary organic aerosol precursors and play important
roles in tropospheric chemistry. In this work, we estimated the total and
speciated NMVOC emissions from China's anthropogenic sources during
1990–2017 by using a bottom-up emission inventory framework and
investigated the main drivers behind the trends. We found that anthropogenic
NMVOC emissions in China have been increasing continuously since 1990 due to
the dramatic growth in activity rates and absence of effective control
measures. We estimated that anthropogenic NMVOC emissions in China increased
from 9.76 Tg in 1990 to 28.5 Tg in 2017, mainly driven by the persistent
growth from the industry sector and solvent use. Meanwhile, emissions
from the residential and transportation sectors declined after 2005, partly
offsetting the total emission increase. During 1990–2017, mass-based
emissions of alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatics, oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs)
and other species increased by 274 %, 88 %, 4 %, 387 %, 91 % and
231 %, respectively. Following the growth in total NMVOC emissions, the
corresponding ozone formation potential (OFP) increased from 38.2 Tg of O3
in 1990 to 99.7 Tg of O3 in 2017. We estimated that aromatics accounted
for the largest share (43 %) of the total OFP, followed by alkenes
(37 %) and OVOCs (10 %). Growth in China's NMVOC emissions was mainly
driven by the transportation sector before 2000, while industry and solvent
use dominated the emission growth during 2000–2010. Since 2010, although
emissions from the industry sector and solvent use kept growing, strict
control measures on transportation and fuel transition in residential stoves
have successfully slowed down the increasing trend, especially after the
implementation of China's clean air action since 2013. However, compared to
large emission decreases in other major air pollutants in China (e.g.,
SO2, NOx and primary PM) during 2013–2017, the relatively flat
trend in NMVOC emissions and OFP revealed the absence of effective control
measures, which might have contributed to the increase in ozone during the
same period. Given their high contributions to emissions and OFP, tailored
control measures for solvent use and industrial sources should be developed,
and multi-pollutant control strategies should be designed to mitigate both
PM2.5 and ozone pollution simultaneously.
Pollution data analysis and characteristics of volatile organic compounds in the environment