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VARIATIONS IN THE EMISSIONS OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS FROM THE TONER FROM A SPECIFIC PHOTOCOPIER
Citation:
Henschel*, D B., R. C. Fortmann, N. Roache, AND X. Liu. VARIATIONS IN THE EMISSIONS OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS FROM THE TONER FROM A SPECIFIC PHOTOCOPIER. JOURNAL OF THE AIR & WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION 51(5):708-717, (2001).
Description:
A laboratory thermal desorption apparatus was used to measure emissions from a number of nominally identical photocopier toners - manufactured for use in a specific model copier - when these toners were heated to fuser temperature (180 - 200 degrees C). The objective was to determine whether VOC emissions from a toner might be reduced through judicious selection of the process and the raw polymer feedstock used in its manufacture. Tests were performed on: a series of toner and feedstock ssamples obtained directly from a toner manufacturer, systematically varying process and feedstock; and toner cartridges - from different lots (for which process and feedstock were unknown) - purchased from local retailers. The results showed that the retailer toners consistently had up to 350% higher emissions of some major compounds, and up to 100% lower emissions of others, relative to the manufacturer toners (p<0.05), probably due to differences in process and/or feedstock. The manufacturer toners showed essentially no effect of process or feedstock, but only because the two processes and two feedstocks used by the manufacturer were not significantly different from each other. It is concluded that process and feedstock can have a significant effect on emissions of individual compounds, but it is not possible from this study to make specific recommendations regarding how process or feedstock might be modified to produce lower-emitting toners for a given copier.