An autoanalyzer for real-time detection of benzene and volatile organic compounds in paper mills

Gas chromatography is commonly employed to detect gaseous pollutants. However, gaseous pollutants in paper mills are multicomponent and difficult to be detected and analyzed by gas chromatography. Therefore, we developed a novel autoanalyzer with an embedded supervisory system, with which multicomponent gaseous pollutants in paper mills can be detected in real time. The autoanalyzer was applied in two paper mills for the detections of the total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and benzene at five sampling sites. The detection results show that the TVOC concentrations in two mills exceed the standard severely, especially in mill A, which can be attributed to the application of pulping and bleaching chemicals. In addition, benzene is also detected in Mill A due to benzene release from the fluorescent brighteners in the papermaking section. The large amounts of TVOC detected in the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) equalization tank of Mill A are explained by their release from the biodegradation of wastewater.