Abstract. Non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) are important precursors of ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which play key roles in tropospheric chemistry. A huge amount of NMVOCs emissions from solvent use are complicated by a wide spectrum of sources and species. This work presents a long-term NMVOCs emission inventory of solvent use during 2000–2017 in China. Based on a mass (material) balance method, NMVOCs emissions were estimated for six categories, including coatings, adhesives, inks, pesticides, cleaners and personal care products. The results show that NMVOC emissions from solvent use in China increased rapidly from 2000 to 2014 then kept stable after 2014. The total emission increased from 1.6 Tg (1.2–2.2 Tg at 95 % confidence interval) in 2000 to 10.6 Tg (7.7–14.9 Tg) in 2017. The substantial growth is driven by the large demand of solvent products in both industrial and residential activities. However, increasing treatment facilities on the solvent-related factories in China restrained the continued growth of solvent NMVOCs emissions in recent years. Rapidly developing and heavily industrialized provinces such as Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong contributed significantly to the solvent use emissions. Oxygenated VOCs, alkanes and aromatics were main components, accounting for 42 %, 28 % and 21 % of total NMVOCs emissions in 2017, respectively. Our results and previous inventories are generally comparable within the estimation uncertainties (−27 %–52 %). However, there exist significant differences in the estimates of sub-categories. Personal care products were a significant and quickly rising source of NMVOCs, which were probably underestimated in previous inventories. Emissions from solvent use were growing faster compared with transportation and combustion emissions which were relatively better controlled in China. Environmentally friendly products can reduce the NMVOCs emissions from solvent use. Supposing all solvent-based products were substituted by water-based products, it would result in 37 %, 41 % and 38 % reduction of emissions, OFP and SOAP, respectively. These results indicate there is still large room for NMVOCs reduction by reducing the utilization of solvent product and end-of-pipe control across industrial sectors.;
