International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Source profiles of hazardous VOCs were developed using PMF and UNMIX models for carrying out source apportionment of ambient VOCs using CMB model. The PMF model fitted the monitored data set very well with five factors. Q values, G-space plots and uncertainty analysis using boot strap technique showed that the performance of the PMF model was good. The source profiles from PMF model resembled most closely the source profiles of petroleum refinery, automobiles, wastewater treatment plants, solvent using industries, and solid waste burning. These source types match well with the prevailing source types in the study area. UNMIX model produced feasible solution with four factors. The source profiles obtained from both the models were compared and observed that the profiles of automobiles, solvent using industries and petroleum refinery developed by PMF model are matching with the profiles developed by UNMIX model. The fourth profile by UNMIX model is partially matching with wastewater treatment plants. The UNMIX model could not distinguish clearly the profile of biomass burning. These observations match very well with the observations of several studies which found that UNMIX model derive less factors compared to PMF model especially when limited data set is used and more contributing sources are available in the study area

Index Terms—PMF model, source profile, UNMIX model, VOC.

The authors are with the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India (e-mail: rnethirajan@gmail.com; smohan@iitm.ac.in).

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Cite: R. Ethirajan and S. Mohan, "Comparative Evaluation of VOC Source Profiles Developed by PMF and UNMIX Models," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 450-455, 2012.