As the trend of ambient ozone concentration is increasing In Taiwan in recent years, Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is putting more and more effort to control the emission of ozone precursors, especially volatile organic compound (VOC) and nitrogen oxide. As industrial park wastewater treatment plant (IPWTP) is considered one of the major VOC emission sources, it is necessary to survey the VOC content and characteristics in wastewater before any VOC emission control strategy was taken. In 2004, Taiwan’s EPA granted a project to investigate 6 different type of IPWTP and to construct database for VOC characteristics in industrial wastewater. The results of investigation showed that VOC concentrations in influent wastewater of IPWTP had a broad range from 17.9 to 863 μg/L, depending on whether pretreatment was employed in factories before being discharged into IPWTP. More VOC compounds were found in wastewater from conventional industrial park than from petrochemical industrial park or recent developed science park. Mass balance method and computer model (USEPA water 8 model) were applied to predict VOCs emitted level from each unit of wastewater treatment plant. According to the results from water 8 model, VOC emission from aeration process is unignorable. 7.4% to 49.4% of VOCs in influent wastewater will be emitted from aeration process. The measured result indicates that influent wastewater of IPWTP contains different VOCs and also has different emission rate from one treatment process to another. In light of the database constructed in this project, Taiwan’s EPA and Department of Industrial Park Management has initiated the process to set up inlet VOC concentration standards of wastewater to regulate VOC emission from IPWTP. A draft of latest version of Air Pollution Control regulation in Taiwan will include regulations of VOC emission from IPWTP.

volatile organic compound,wastewater treatment plant