Abstract
The major objective in this study is to apply different techniques to analyze the polar and nonpolar volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the waste streams of Hi-tech industries. The purge and trap (P&T) technique is known for its excellent extraction efficiency in the analysis of nopolar compounds. However for polar compounds, P&T shows poor linearity and precision. Due to the advantages of solventless and low setup cost, solid phase microextraction (SPME) had been chosen for the analysis of polar compounds.In the P&T experiments, all the steps and criteria were followed by US EPA Method 624 and Method NIEA.W785.50B of R.O.C. EPA. Over 50 kinds of VOC can be analyzed by the P&T/GC/MS system in this study. For SPME experiments, both optimization and calibration were tested. According to the results of SPME, it shows good linearity (R2>0.985) and precision (RSD<10%) for four target compounds in this study. Hence SPME is much better than P&T in the linearity results of P&T (best R2<0.94) for polar VOCs analysis, although the equilibrium time of SPME is over 1 hour.All the real samples were collected from a wastewater treatment plant of the Hi-tech industries and the surroundings of its effluent. The major polar and nonpolar pollutant is acetone (over 1 ppm) and toluene (over 100 ppb) respectively. Odorous dimethyl sulfide (DMS) was formed in the wastewater after biological unit. Besides, DMS and acetone were still existing in the samples collected from the surroundings of its effluent. These compounds are likely the reason of odor problem in the surroundings. Hence the VOCs control of the treatment plant has to be enforced in the future.