The ozone forming potential of the biogenic alpha-pinene in comparison with anthropogenic hydrocarbons

A new method of evaluation of smog chamber kinetic data is presented to describe the degradation of olefines by OH and ozone simultaneously. The scheme has been validated with several olefines and five monoterpenes. In the dark reaction of ozone with a surplus of olefines, the formation of OH radicals can be detected. In experiments under irradiation, the formation of ozone in the presence of alpha-pinene, cis-butene-2 and propene is compared at different hydrocarbon/NOx ratios. The lowest ozone forming potential is found for the monoterpene. Propene yields twice as much, whereas cisbutene-2 with a factor of 1.5 is in between.