Odor-causing VOC remediation and health risk assessment in passenger vehicles

SUN Zi-han; WANG Geng; TANG Peng-kai; HUANG Chao; YANG Zhi-biao; PANG Xiao-bing

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China Environmental Science ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5) : 2369-2376.

Air Pollution Control

Odor-causing VOC remediation and health risk assessment in passenger vehicles

SUN Zi-han¹, WANG Geng¹, TANG Peng-kai¹, HUANG Chao², YANG Zhi-biao², PANG Xiao-bing¹

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Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified as chemicals that caused odor pollution in cars. Nanostructured water ion (EWNS) technology was demonstrated to be capable of producing large amounts of hydroxyl radicals to degrade VOCs, though systematic research on odor VOC removal had not been conducted. In this study, VOCs components from 9cars were first analyzed offline using TD-GC-MS, and the main odor VOCs in actual car interiors were determined through the comprehensive scoring method. A mixture gas containing the average concentration ratio of detected odor VOCs was then introduced into the experimental vehicle, where degradation efficiency was evaluated using EWNS technology. Human health risk assessment was also performed. The results revealed that aliphatic compounds were detected most frequently (7species) in car interior VOCs, while aromatic compounds were found to have the highest detection rate and concentration. Through odor identification scoring, xylene, toluene, ethyl acetate, o-xylene, n-butanol, and hexanal were selected as representative odor VOCs. After EWNS treatment, significant removal effects were observed for all representative odor VOCs, with toluene removal rate being recorded at 92.8%. However, EWNS degradation efficiency was found to vary with placement locations in the vehicle, where better removal effects were achieved in rear positions compared to front positions, potentially associated with hydroxyl radical diffusion efficiency. Meanwhile, the carcinogenic risks of benzene and ethylbenzene were significantly reduced, transitioning from carcinogenic risk to risk-free status.

Key words

automotive interior VOCs / EWSN / governance methods / health risk assessment / odor recognition

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SUN Zi-han, WANG Geng, TANG Peng-kai, HUANG Chao, YANG Zhi-biao, PANG Xiao-bing. Odor-causing VOC remediation and health risk assessment in passenger vehicles[J]. China Environmental Science. 2025, 45(5): 2369-2376

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