Air quality in a small city: criteria pollutants, volatile organic compounds, metals, and microbes.

This work presents a year-long integral study of air quality parameters in Ciudad Real, a small city in the center of Spain, and its influence on the nearby national park, Las Tablas de Daimiel. The study covers meteorological parameters and criteria pollutants such as O, NO, NO, SO, and PM. Additionally, for each month, a 1-week campaign was performed sampling air in sorbent tubes with 8-h time resolution to analyze anthropogenic volatile organic compounds and the effects of seasons, daytime, and working-weekend days.

Effects of massive desiccation of olive waste residues on air quality.

New industries are proliferating in the recovery of agri-food wastes, such as those involved in the revaluation of alperujo, generated in the production of olive oil. Despite the potential environmental benefits, their activity is not exempt from new forms of emissions, aggravated by the massification of waste treatments. This work reports a six-month field campaign carried out in an alperujo desiccation plant which can serve as a proxy for these emerging industries in the Mediterranean countries.

Trace elements and microbial community composition associated with airborne PM in wetlands: A case study in Tablas de Daimiel National Park.

Tablas de Daimiel National Park (TDNP) is one of the most important wetlands in the Iberian Peninsula. Due to its location near various cities and new industries focused on agricultural waste revalorization, we investigated concurrently the concentrations of particulate matter 2.5 (PM) mass, trace element composition, and associated microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) during a year-long study.

Secondary organic aerosol formation from styrene photolysis and photooxidation with hydroxyl radicals.

The formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) generated by irradiating styrene in the presence and/or absence of OH, NOx, HO vapour and seed aerosol has been investigated for the first time. Experiments were conducted in a smog chamber at 298 K and atmospheric pressure. Styrene decay was measured by gas chromatography with a mass spectrometric detector (GC-MS), and the temporal evolution of the aerosol was monitored using a fast mobility particle sizer (FMPS).

New particle formation from the reactions of ozone with indene and styrene.

This work reports the experimental study of the ozonolysis of indene in the presence of SO and the reaction conditions leading to the formation of secondary aerosols. The reactions have been carried out in a Teflon chamber filled with synthetic air mixtures at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. As in the case of styrene, SO plays a key role in the oxidation of the Criegee intermediates and enhances the formation of particulate matter.

Photolysis study of fluorinated ketones under natural sunlight conditions.

UV-visible absorption cross-sections are reported for CF3C(O)CH3, CF3C(O)CH2CH3, and CH3CH2C(O)CH(CH3)2. The photolysis rate constants of CF3C(O)CH3, CF3C(O)CH2CH3, and CF3CF2C(O)CF(CF3)2 were measured from smog-chamber experiments carried out in a 400 L Teflon-bag reactor under sunlight irradiation. Actinic radiation profiles from the "Tropospheric Ultraviolet and Visible Radiation Model" were used to obtain quantum efficiencies of photolysis: 0.

Atmospheric chemistry and environmental assessment of inhalational fluroxene.

Smog chamber/gas chromatography techniques are used to investigate the atmospheric degradation of fluroxene, an anesthetic, through oxidation with OH and Cl radicals at 298 K and under atmospheric pressure of N2 or air. The measured rate constants (k) are: k(fluroxene+OH(.) )=(2.

Partitioning, sources and variability of regional and local oxidant (OX = O3 + NO 2) in a coastal rural area in the southwest of Iberian Peninsula.

The purpose of this work is to investigate the behaviour and variability of oxidant levels (OX = NO2 + O3), for the first time, in a rural coastal area in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, affected by several air masses types. Detailed database (built-up over the years 2008 to 2011, and containing around 500,000 data) from the Atmospheric Sounding Station "El Arenosillo" was used. The observed daily cycles of NO x and OX were influenced by air masses coming from industrial and urban area.

Behaviour and variability of local and regional oxidant levels (OX = O3 + NO2) measured in a polluted area in central-southern of Iberian Peninsula.

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the photochemical air pollution in central-southern of the Iberian Peninsula, analysing the behaviour and variability of oxidant levels (OX = O(3) + NO(2)), measured in a polluted area with the highest concentration of heavy industry in central Spain. A detailed air pollution database was observed from two monitoring stations. The data period used was 2008 and 2009, around 210,000 data, selected for its pollution and meteorological statistics, which are very representative of the region.

The role of tropospheric ice surfaces in the elimination of the CFC substitute, trifluoroethanol.

This work provides uptake results of CF(3)CH(2)OH on ice over the temperature range 203-223 K using a coated wall flow tube coupled to mass spectrometric detection. For experiments over pure ice, the adsorption was fully reversible and the data could be described in terms of the Langmuir isotherm for the range of concentrations and temperatures studied. For this temperature range, ΔH°(ads) = -46 ± 16 kJ mol(-1) was obtained (error is 2σ + 5%).

Radiative efficiencies for fluorinated esters: indirect global warming potentials of hydrofluoroethers.

Density Functional Theory (DFT) has been used with an empirically-derived correction for the wavenumbers of vibrational band positions to predict the infrared spectra of several fluorinated esters (FESs). Radiative efficiencies (REs) were then determined using the method of Pinnock et al. and these were used with atmospheric lifetimes from the literature to determine the direct global warming potentials of FESs.

Surface ozone comparison conducted in two rural areas in central-southern Spain.

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the photochemical air pollution analysing the levels and temporal variations of surface ozone in two rural areas situated in central-southern Spain.

Method: The study is based on ozone hourly data recorded during the overall period between January 2008 and November 2009. The seasonal and daily ozone cycles as well as the number of exceedances of the threshold established in the European Ozone Directive have been calculated and analysed.

Atmospheric chemistry of C4F9OC2H5 (HFE-7200), C4F9OCH3 (HFE-7100), C3F7OCH3 (HFE-7000) and C3F7CH2OH: temperature dependence of the kinetics of their reactions with OH radicals, atmospheric lifetimes and global warming potentials.

The atmospheric chemistry of several gases used in industrial applications, C(4)F(9)OC(2)H(5) (HFE-7200), C(4)F(9)OCH(3) (HFE-7100), C(3)F(7)OCH(3) (HFE-7000) and C(3)F(7)CH(2)OH, has been studied. The discharge flow technique coupled with mass-spectrometric detection has been used to study the kinetics of their reactions with OH radicals as a function of temperature. The infrared spectra of the compounds have also been measured.

Kinetic, mechanistic and temperature dependence study of Cl reactions with CH3OC(O)H and CH3CH2OC(O)H. Atmospheric implications.

Reactions of Cl atoms with CH(3)OC(O)H (1) and CH(3)CH(2)OC(O)H (2) have been studied using the Discharge Flow-Mass Spectrometric (DF-MS) method. The study has been carried out at 1 Torr total pressure under pseudo-first-order conditions in the temperature range 253 K to 333 K to approach the tropospheric temperature profile. The measured room temperature rate coefficients are k(1)=(1.

Atmospheric chemistry of HFE-7000 (CF(3)CF (2)CF (2)OCH (3)) and 2,2,3,3,4,4,4-heptafluoro-1-butanol (CF (3)CF (2)CF (2)CH (2)OH): kinetic rate coefficients and temperature dependence of reactions with chlorine atoms.

Background, Aim, And Scope: The adverse environmental impacts of chlorinated hydrocarbons on the Earth's ozone layer have focused attention on the effort to replace these compounds by nonchlorinated substitutes with environmental acceptability. Hydrofluoroethers (HFEs) and fluorinated alcohols are currently being introduced in many applications for this purpose. Nevertheless, the presence of a great number of C-F bonds drives to atmospheric long-lived compounds with infrared absorption features.

Cyclooctane tropospheric degradation initiated by reaction with C1 atoms.

Goal, Scope And Background: Within the non-methane hydrocarbons, alkanes constitute the largest fraction of the anthropogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds. For the case of cyclic alkanes, tropospheric degradation is expected to be initiated mainly by OH reactions in the gas phase. Nevertheless, C1 atom reaction rate constants are generally one order of magnitude larger than those of OH.

Atmospheric HFEs degradation in the gas phase: reactions of HFE-7100 and HFE-7200 with Cl atoms at low temperatures.

Kinetic rate coefficients for the reactions of HFE-7100 (1) (C4F9OCH3) and HFE-7200 (2) (C4F9OC2H5) with Cl atoms have been measured using a discharge flow mass spectrometric technique (DFMS) at 1 Torr total pressure. The reactions have been studied under pseudo-first-order kinetic conditions in excess of HFEs over Cl atoms and the study has been extended from 333 down to 234 K to approach the tropospheric temperature profile. At room temperature the measured rate constants are k (1) = (1.