Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural–Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
there needs to be improvement in the abstract which is out of sync with the introduction
Author Response
Reply to reviewer 1 comments
Manuscript ID: atmosphere-2306464
Title: Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural-Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
Reviewer 1
there needs to be improvement in the abstract which is out of sync with the introduction
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised the abstract and be consistent to the “Introduction”.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors present a study of the contribution of VOCs at receptor sites from different sources in the region of Yunlin (Taiwan) near an agricultural-industrial complex and petrochemical industry coastal area.
The aim of this study is not clear. What is the purpose of this study ?. To study the contribution of different sources at 10 receptors sites ? or the ozone process in this region. Are the results of various source contribution of VOCs in this region tell us something new or used in air quality model to study or predict the ozone due to different sources ?
There is little discussion on the results, such as why there is a decreasing rend of OFP of various VOC species. There should be some time series plots of ozone, NOX and some VOC species at some stations to see the relationship of ozone precursors and ozone, NOx.
There are a large number of typos errors in the manuscript. The authors ae advised to check the manuscript for syntax or typographical errors. Included is the pdf with comments .
I recommend the manuscript to have major revision before being accepted for publication.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reply to reviewer 2 comments
Manuscript ID: atmosphere-2306464
Title: Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural-Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
Reviewer 2
The authors present a study of the contribution of VOCs at receptor sites from different sources in the region of Yunlin (Taiwan) near an agricultural-industrial complex and petrochemical industry coastal area.
The aim of this study is not clear. What is the purpose of this study?. To study the contribution of different sources at 10 receptors sites? or the ozone process in this region. Are the results of various source contribution of VOCs in this region tell us something new or used in air quality model to study or predict the ozone due to different sources ?
Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised the introduction and explained our objectives for this study. We do not mention the air quality model in this work. We conducted the PMF for VOCs to identify the source contribution to VOC species.
There is little discussion on the results, such as why there is a decreasing rend of OFP of various VOC species. There should be some time series plots of ozone, NOX and some VOC species at some stations to see the relationship of ozone precursors and ozone, NOx.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have plotted the time series graph of ozone, NOx and VOCs to explain the relationship among ozone precursors, ozone, and NOx. In Taiwan, ozone pollution associated with VOC-sensitive regime was decreased from 72 to 55% corresponding from 2007 to 2020 (Chen et al., 2021). Therefore, VOC reduction is important to ambient ozone pollutants. However, the NOx reduction is also concerned after the control strategies for VOC emission in recent years.
Hourly O3 concentration is increase with the decrease of NOx, butane, acetylene, isopentane, propene and toluene, especial in the time during 10:00-17:00 (shown as Figure S4). The anthropogenic activities (such as mobile emission, industrial emission etc) can be the important sources of NOx and VOCs to lead the O3 formation after sunrise. The correlation coefficient analysis indicates the O3 reveals high negative correlation coefficient to the NOx, NMHC, toluene, isopentane and butane (shown as Table S3). In addition, the isoprene increases with the increase of O3 that indicates the isoprene emission is attribution to the vegetations. (L 365-373)
In Taiwan, ozone pollution associated with VOC-sensitive regime was decreased from 72 to 55% corresponding from 2007 to 2020 (Chen et al., 2021). Therefore, VOC reduction is important to ambient ozone pollutants. However, the NOx reduction is also concerned after the control strategies for VOC emission in recent years.(L 515-518)
Chen, T.F., Tsai, C.Y., Chen, C.H., Chang, K.H. (2021). Effect of long-range transport from changing emission on ozone-NOx-VOC sensitivity: implication of control strategy to improve ozone. J. Innov. Technol, 3(2), 39-49. doi.org/10.29424/JIT.202109_3(2).0005.
There are a large number of typos errors in the manuscript. The authors ae advised to check the manuscript for syntax or typographical errors. Included is the pdf with comments.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have carefully checked the manuscript thoroughly.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Please see the attached file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reply to reviewer 3 comments
Manuscript ID: atmosphere-2306464
Title: Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural-Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
Reviewer 3
The manuscript collected data from ten air quality monitoring stations in central Taiwan to investigate the emission characteristics and sources of VOCs and ozone formation. The authors have provided complete information in the introduction and results sections. However, they need to modify the materials and methods and discussion. Moreover, they should also provide new supplemental materials. My questions or comments are shown below:
- Please provide the names for the x and y axes in Figure 1 (left).
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised Figure 1 and change the local x-y coordinate to the latitude and longitude coordinates.
- Please provide the sample sizes for Tables 1, 2, and 3.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added the sample number in Tables 1-3.
- Please provide a caption for Figure 4.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have a caption for Figure 4.
- Please correct the sentence "Figure 1 shows the major air pollution n sources and ambient air monitoring" on page 3, line 105.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have carefully checked the typo error for the manuscript thoroughly.
- In section "2.2. Emission Characteristics," please cite a reference. Is the emission characteristics described from an industrial area, not from agricultural activity? If yes, this study also should provide the characteristics of VOCs in the Agricultural area in Yunlin county. Furthermore, I am confused about why the authors want to describe the emission characteristics in the section "Materials and Methods."
Response: Thank you for your comments. The emission characteristics are determined for industrial area. We have cited the reference for this section.
- Are these air pollutant data from government monitoring stations or were they set up by research teams? Please specify (section 2.3).
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have explained the stations are operation and maintenance by the petrochemical industry. (L 130-131)
- Please provide the uncertainty for PMF modeling in the supplemental material.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added a Table (Table S4) for the statistical criteria of PMF application for this study.
- On page 6, lines 212 to 213, "These results show that PM10, SO2, and O3 levels increase when the mixing height increases." Why?
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have explained the solar radiation intensity increase with the increase of mixing height and then the windblown also increase the entrainment of particulate matter. In addition, the sea breeze is from the coast area and passing the petrochemical industry to associate with the SO2 content air into the area. Furthermore, the O3 formation relates to the intensity of solar ration that is lead the development of mixing height at the boundary layer. The detail is as follows:
The solar radiation intensity increase with the increase of mixing height and then the windblown also increase the entrainment of particulate matter. In addition, the sea breeze is from the coast area and passing the petrochemical industry to associate with the SO2 content air into the area. Furthermore, the O3 formation relates to the intensity of solar ration that is lead the development of mixing height at the boundary layer. (L 230-234)
- Please describe the meaning of the bar and circle points in Figure 8. Furthermore, why are there different colors in the circle points for different factors?
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised the caption of Figure 8. We used the same color for the different factors. The detail is as follows:
Figure 8. VOC emission sources are determined using PMF. (bar chart indicates the VOC concentration and circle point indicates the percentage for different factors) (L 481-482)
- The authors aimed to investigate the characteristics of VOC emissions in an agricultural and industrial complex area due to a lack of data. They should further compare the differences between VOC emissions in industrial, agricultural, and agricultural-industrial complex areas from other references.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added some references and compared to the emission sources of this study. The detail is as follows:
There are few works conducted the VOCs from the agricultural emission that lead the lack of VOC emission from agricultural activities (vegetable, animal manure, cropland and pasture etc). In Metro Vancouver area, the agriculture was portion about 2.7% VOC emission, 78% VOC emitted from industry and 20% from natural vegetation (Roumeliotis et al., 2021).Generally, volatile and semivolatile biogenic VOC fractions including oxygenated VOCs, isoprene, monoterepenes, and sesquiterpenes were determined in the atmosphere of mid-European agricultural and natural plant (König et al., 1995). In Yunlin, the biogenic VOCs (BVOCs) was 10500 tons/year and most of them were isoprene, and mono-terpenes in 2021 (TEPA, 2023). The high potion of biogenic VOCs is contributed to total VOCs in Yunlin county, therefore, the species of BVOCs are important to determine their OFP. However, the lack of specie compositions of BVOCs can be a limitation to the development of ambient ozone control strategies in the future. (L 421-432)
Roumeliotis, T., Guenther, A., Durward, D., Pourbafrani MASc, H., Relative Impact of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Agriculture on Air Quality of Urban Centres. Governments of Canada and British Columbia, British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, September, 2021.
König, G., Brunda,M., Puxbaum, H., Hewitt, C.N., Duckham,S.C., Rudolph, J.Relative contribution of oxygenated hydrocarbons to the total biogenic VOC emissions of selected mid-European agricultural and natural plant species. Atmos. Environ.,29(1995), pp.861-874,10.1016/1352-2310(95)00026-U.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (TEPA), (2023) Taiwan Air Pollutants Emission Data System, https://teds.epa.gov.tw/Introduction.aspx (access April, 1, 2023)
- What is the meaning of grey box in Figure S3? Please explain it.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added the legend for Figure S3-a and explained the box plot.
- Please add word to describe the statistical methods and software in the revised manuscript.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added the statistical software and methods for this study.
2.8 Statistical Analysis
Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software (IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22, IBM Inc., Chicago) and the standard for statistical significance was p < 0.01. (L 212-214)
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The revised manuscript is improving in presentation and readability.
English needs to be checked. Some examples such as
(1) Line 130: "These stations are operation and maintenance by the petrochemical industry" should be "These stations are operated and maintained by the petrochemical industry."
(2) Line 234: "solar ration" should be "solar radiation"
...
Author Response
Reply to reviewer 2 comments
Manuscript ID: atmosphere-2306464
Title: Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural-Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
English needs to be checked. Some examples such as
(1) Line 130: "These stations are operation and maintenance by the petrochemical industry" should be "These stations are operated and maintained by the petrochemical industry."
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised the sentence.
(2) Line 234: "solar ration" should be "solar radiation"...
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised the phrase.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
I appreciate the authors' responses for my questions or comments. I only have two comments left:
1. Please provide sample sizes for different sampling stations in Table 1.
2. Please describe the statistical methods in section 2.8.
Thank you.
Author Response
Reply to reviewer 3 comments
Manuscript ID: atmosphere-2306464
Title: Characteristics of Airborne Pollutants in the Area of an Agricultural-Industrial Complex near a Petrochemical Industry Facility
- Please provide sample sizes for different sampling stations in Table 1.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added the sample size for different monitoring stations in Table 1.
- Please describe the statistical methods in section 2.8.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have the statistical method in section 2.8. The detail is as follows:
2.8 Statistical Analysis
Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software (IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22, IBM Inc., Chicago, USA) and Pearson correlation was conducted by two tailed test and following the p value statistical significance level, p < 0.01.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
