Reassessment and update of emission factors for unintentional dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenylsShow others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Science of the Total Environment, ISSN 0048-9697, E-ISSN 1879-1026, Vol. 605, p. 498-506Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
One of the major goals of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is to continuously reduce the releases of unintentional persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated dibenzo-paradioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF) or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) from anthropogenic sources. Until now, most efforts have focused on the releases of PCDD/PCDF and to a lesser extent on unintentionally generated PCB, and therefore, release inventories reported as toxic equivalents (TEQ) do not include the twelve dioxin-like PCB (dl-PCB). In order to facilitate the development of national release inventories for the total TEQ - consisting of PCDD, PCDF and PCB - this study collected and summarized published emission factors (EFs) of unintentional dl-PCB or calculated them from measured data for the sources listed in the UNEP Toolkit. In total, 286 EFs for dl-PCB were found (or could be calculated) whereby 233 described release to air, 23 EFs addressed to residue, 25 EFs to product; and only 5 EFs addressed releases to land. Taking into account performance criteria such as the facility type and scale or abatement technologies, the EFs were grouped and assigned to the source categories and/or classes used in the UNEP Toolkit. With these newly added data and EFs of dl-PCB, the already existing EFs in the Toolkit can be improved and amended. In addition, a statistically significant correlation between the EFAir of dl-PCB proposed in this study and EFAir of PCDD/PCDF recommended in the Toolkit was observed.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2017. Vol. 605, p. 498-506
Keywords [en]
Persistent organic pollutants, Emission factor, Unintentional dl-PCB, Correlation
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-61030DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.05.068ISI: 000408275500052PubMedID: 28672238Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85021673814OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-61030DiVA, id: diva2:1142380
Note
Funding Agencies:
NSFC-UNEP Joint Research Project 21561142001
Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University IRT1261
Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality of Tsinghua University
2017-09-192017-09-192018-02-05Bibliographically approved