Increasing volatile organic compounds emission from massive industrial coating consumption require more comprehensive prevention

Coating is an important raw material in industrial production. Global consumption of industrial coatings has approximated 28.84 Tg in 2019, with China accounting for more than half which generated plenty of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). To learn the pollution characteristic and prevention strategy, we estimated the speciated VOCs emission of coating-consuming industries in China through field investigation, sample collection and analytical analysis. The environmental and health influences in 2019, 2025 and 2030 were then assessed based on scenario prediction with taking low-VOCs containing coating (LCC) application into consideration which was an important action in the ongoing prevention measures. Ozone formation potential (OFP), secondary organic aerosol potential (SOAP) and the newly established index of total health risks (THR) were employed to indicate the environmental influence and health threaten. Conclusions showed that (1) VOCs emissions would increase from 6.78 Tg to 10.46 Tg during 2019–2030 which result in a much higher OFP, SOAP and THR. (2) Replacing traditional organic coating (TOC) with LCC could effectively reduce VOCs emission. For every 1% increase in LCC proportion, VOCs emission, OFPs, SOAPs, and THRs decreased by 1.24%, 1.44%, 1.49%, and 1.70% on average, respectively. (3) Potential O3 and SOA yields approximated 25.61 Tg and 19.12 Tg (5.87% and 4.39% higher than 2019) even in the most stringent scenario for 2030 which meant continuous increases in industrial coating consumption could offset the positive effects produced by LCC substitution. (4) Esters, ethers, alcohols, and ketones are proposed as main composition of coatings to effectively reduce VOCs emission and their influence on account of better technical accessibility. These findings reveal that more innovative pollution prevention methods and production technologies are urgently needed to compensate for increased pollutant emissions derived from the growing demand for coating-associated commodities.