Mass balance approach for estimating volatile organic compounds emissions from automotive industry

Abstract

During the last several decades, the automotive coating industry has faced air pollution
control problems arising from their daily operations. Emissions from surface coating
operations include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), several inorganic pollutants and
particulate matter. The limit of VOCs emissions established by the European Union for
automotive coating industry is 60 g/n/. No threshold limits are established in Brazil for this
particular industrial branch. Using the material balance approach, an estimate of the VOCs
from automotive surface coating operations that uses solvent-base and water-base coatings
was perfom1ed. Based on consumption and composition of raw materials; area of painted
surfaces; and amount of emissions captured in vapor and liquid phases; it was possible to
estimate the VOCs concentrations emitted by unit of painted surface area. The accuracy of
this mass balance approach was estimated by comparing results from lab tests of VOC
samples collected in three different emissions points before treatment.