Today’s topic is on how to calculate VOC using a safety data sheet (SDS) of a paint product. Before we begin our calculations let’s go over a little bit about VOC. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound, it is a chemical compound with high vapor pressure at ambient temperature that comes from solid or liquid materials such as paint product, fuels, cleaning solvents, etc. In the present of sunlight, VOC reacts with other chemicals (NOx and O2) to form ground level ozone – a colorless gas with slightly sweet order. There are two types of ozone, the good ozone located in the upper atmosphere protects us from harmful UV. And there’s the bad ozone, also known as ground level ozone, they are secondary pollutant and are very harmful to the environment and human health, especially among the elderlies, children and those with respiratory diseases.
Under the Clean Air Act, ozone is one of the five air pollutants where the EPA is required to set National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) to protect human health and welfare. Stationary sources such as food processing plants, oil refineries, power plants, factories, and other sources are required to report their emissions. With that being said, let’s begin our VOC calculations.
We will calculate paint product since it’s one of the most common solvents that emit VOC. From the product SDS all you need is the density of the material which can be found in section 9 and the chemical ingredients in section 3 of the SDS.
Section 9 of the physical properties of the product the relative density also known as specific gravity is 1.23. Specific gravity is the ratio density of a product over the density of a standard and in this case the units cancel each other out.
Step 1. Convert specific gravity to density in lbs/gal
- Conversion factor is 8.345 lbs/gal
- 1.23*8.345 lbs/gal = 10.26 lbs/gal
The next step is to figure out which chemical ingredients is a VOC. From the table below, the highlighted ingredients are considered a VOC because according to the EPA a chemical compound with a boiling point below 250 C at standard atmospheric pressure of 101.3 kpa is a VOC. To learn more about identifying VOCs go to How to Identify VOC Chemical link.
Step 2. Add % weight
Step 3. Calculate VOC
Convert percent to decimal by dividing it by 100 and multiplying it by the product density of 10.26 lbs/gal.
25/100 = 0.25*10.26 = 0.641 lbs/gal
60.3/100 = 0.603*10.26 = 6.19 lbs/gal
Min VOC = 0.641 lbs/gal Max VOC = 6.19 lbs/gal
This paint product produce anywhere between 0.641 to 6.19 lbs/gal of VOC.