Chemical characterization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from multiple cooking cuisines and purification efficiency assessments

Cooking process can produce abundant volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful to environment and human health. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive analysis in which VOCs emissions from multiple cuisines have been sampled based on the simulation and acquisition platform, involving concentration characteristics, ozone forma-tion potential (OFP) and purification efficiency assessments. VOCs emissions varied from 1828.5 to 14,355.1 pg/m3, with the maximum and minimum values from Barbecue and Fam-ily cuisine, respectively. Alkanes and alcohol had higher contributions to VOCs from Sichuan and Hunan cuisine (64.1%), Family cuisine (66.3%), Shandong cuisine (69.1%) and Cantonese cuisine (69.8%), with the dominant VOCs species of ethanol, isobutane and n-butane. In comparison, alcohols (79.5%) were abundant for Huaiyang cuisine, while alkanes (19.7%), alkenes (35.9%) and haloalkanes (22.9%) accounted for higher proportions from Barbecue. Specially, carbon tetrachloride, n-hexylene and 1-butene were the most abundant VOCs species for Barbecue, ranging from 8.8% to 14.6%. The highest OFP occurred in Barbecue. The sensitive species of OFP for Huaiyang cuisine were alcohols, while other cuisines were alkenes. Purification efficiency assessments shed light on the removal differences of indi-vidual and synergistic control technologies. VOCs emissions exhibited a strong dependence on the photocatalytic oxidation, with the removal efficiencies of 29.0%-54.4%. However, the high voltage electrostatic, wet purification and mechanical separation techniques played a mediocre or even counterproductive role in the VOCs reduction, meanwhile collaborative control technologies could not significantly improve the removal efficiency. Our results iden-tified more effective control technologies, which were conductive to alleviating air pollution from cooking emissions.(c) 2022 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The cooking process generates harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that harm the environment and human health. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis of VOCs emissions from multiple cuisines, evaluating concentration characteristics, ozone formation potential (OFP), and purification efficiency. The VOCs emissions varied across cuisines, with the highest from Barbecue and the lowest from Family cuisine. Different cuisines had different dominant VOCs species, with alkanes and alcohols being prominent contributors. The study also evaluated different control technologies for VOCs reduction and identified more effective methods for alleviating air pollution from cooking emissions.