Source apportionment of VOC in 3 French sites by CMB and PMF models and critical analysis

Abstract

Hourly concentrations of 31 ambient volatile organic compounds (VOC) were analysed between 2001 and 2003 at three sites located close to three large French cities, in order to calculate contributions of each VOC source. Winter and summer VOC datasets were analysed using chemical mass balance (CMB) and positive matrix factorisation (PMF). For each site, some common sources (vehicle exhaust, gasoline evaporation, leaks of gas, biogenic and domestic heating) were found. Whatever the site of measurement, the automobile exhaust source is most important (35.4 to 61.4% of the total contributions according to the season and the site) in terms of contribution of source. First PMF and CMB results are quite different because PMF finds factor relating to distant sources. New CMB modelling using distant sources profile were made and so CMB and PMF exhibit nearly identical solutions. © 2007 WIT Press.