Monitoring of ozone precursors in ambient air using pumped and diffusive sampling on the sorbent Carbopack X

EU legislation for ambient ozone concentrations puts a requirement on Member States to monitor a large set of ozone precursor species, mostly hydrocarbons. We describe an investigation into how much of this information is readily available from manual methods used routinely for benzene monitoring in the United Kingdom, using pumped or diffusive sampling of ambient air onto the sorbent Carbopack X, followed by thermal desorption and gas chromatography with a flame ionisation detector. Identifiable peaks were assessed for reliability by comparison with independent automated measurements and emissions inventories. We conclude that 21 of the 29 specified hydrocarbons can be usefully monitored without any change to the methods used.