Assessment of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in a Residential Area abutting a Large Petrochemical Complex

The results of VOC monitoring in a residential area abutting a petrochemical complex and theinfluence of causative parameters on the concentration is discussed in this paper. The monitored datareveals that about 21 hazardous VOC are predominantly present in the study area. Toluene is the mostabundant compound of all. The mean concentration of benzene, a known carcinogen, is 38 μg/m3. The widevariation in toluene to benzene ratio (T/B) and the weak correlation between the concentration of variouscompounds and NOx indicate that they are contributed by multiple sources. There is no fixed patternobserved in the concentration variation between morning and evening samples. The BTEX ratio observedin this study varies from 1:2.6:0.3:0.2 to 1:9.5; 2.1:1.4. The study reveals that the hazardous VOC in thestudy area are contributed by multiple sources and that the concentration of some of them is very high