Zs. Guo et al., Estimation of the rate of VOC emissions from solvent-based indoor coating materials based on product formulation, ATMOS ENVIR, 33(8), 1999, pp. 1205-1215
Two computational methods are proposed for estimation of the emission rate
of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from solvent-based indoor coating mate
rials based on the knowledge of product formulation. The first method utili
zes two previously developed mass transfer models with two key parameters -
the total vapor pressure and the average molecular weight for total volati
le organic compounds (TVOCs) - being estimated based on the VOC contents in
the product. The second method is based on a simple, first-order decay mod
el with its parameters being estimated from the properties of both the sour
ce and the environment. All the model parameters can be readily obtained. D
etailed procedures for computing the key parameters are described by using
examples. The predictive errors were evaluated with small chamber data, and
the results were satisfactory. Thus, the proposed methods provide a way to
predict the VOC emissions in the indoor environment without having to cond
uct costly chamber testing. The two proposed methods work for both TVOCs an
d individual VOCs. Pros and cons for each method are discussed. (C) 1999 El
sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.