Establishment and verification of anthropogenic speciated VOCs emission inventory of Central China

•A high-resolution refined speciated VOCs emission inventory of Central China was established.•168 subsectors speciation of VOCs emission were established, alkanes (30.5 %) and aromatic hydrocarbons (28.8 %) were the main groups while toluene (6.6 %) was the highest specie.•Based on VOCs online data, tracer ratio method by trace gas CO and PMF receptor model were used to evaluate the species-specific emission and source structure.•Remote sensing satellite inversion of HCHO emission was used to indirectly verify the VOCs spatial distribution. Improving the accuracy of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission inventory is crucial for reducing atmospheric pollution and formulating control policy of air pollution. In this study, an anthropogenic speciated VOCs emission inventory was established for Central China represented by Henan Province at a 3 km × 3 km spatial resolution based on the emission factor method. The 2019 VOCs emission in Henan Province was 1003.5 Gg, while industrial process source (33.7%) was the highest emission source, Zhengzhou (17.9%) was the city with highest emission and April and August were the months with the more emissions. High VOCs emission regions were concentrated in downtown areas and industrial parks. Alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons were the main VOCs contribution groups. The species composition, source contribution and spatial distribution were verified and evaluated through tracer ratio method (TR), Positive Matrix Factorization Model (PMF) and remote sensing inversion (RSI). Results show that both the emission results by emission inventory (EI) (15.7 Gg) and by TR method (13.6 Gg) and source contribution by EI and PMF are familiar. The spatial distribution of HCHO primary emission based on RSI is basically consistent with that of HCHO emission based on EI with a R-value of 0.73. The verification results show that the VOCs emission inventory and speciated emission inventory established in this study are relatively reliable. [Display omitted]