We have blogged, talked and presented on the important topic of determining the best method of VOC determination for more than a year, and Taminco’s approach continues to attract attention.

Many industries are becoming increasingly concerned about volatile materials which evaporate into the atmosphere during storage, use and disposal of the chemical products they use. In many areas, this tendency for evaporation is being quantified in terms of the VOC (volatile organic chemical) content. New government regulations designed to curb VOC emissions are rapidly appearing, and some of these new laws have created significant challenges in the area of VOC analysis. Before reliable enforcement of VOC regulations can occur, accurate and precise methods for the determination of the VOC content of commercial products must be developed. In addition, a clear definition of a VOC threshold needs to be set.

So begins a brief (37-page) discussion of the best method for establishing VOC threshold, prepared by Kurt Buyse, Dane Jones and myself. This paper is available for immediate download by clicking here.

A complete description of the relative volatility of organic compounds requires a detailed understanding of how vapor pressure changes as a function of temperature. The comprehensive physical chemistry of vapor pressure is too detailed to review in anything less than a full textbook, but the attached paper covers the basics of those issues that are most relevant to volatility comparisons and the setting a VOC threshold.