PM2.5 source apportionment using organic marker-based chemical mass balance modeling: influence of inorganic markers and sensitivity to source profiles

Yingze Tian, Xiaoning Wang, Peng Zhao, Zongbo Shi, Roy Harrison*

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

A Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) model has been applied to source apportionment of PM2.5 in the Chinese megacity of Chengdu. The study explored the sensitivity of the CMB model to the adoption of different organic source profiles, and to the use of organic markers only (OM-CMB), compared with using a combination of organic and inorganic markers (IOM-CMB). A comprehensive comparison of OM-CMB and IOM-CMB shows that PM2.5 mass concentrations from gasoline vehicles, diesel vehicles, industrial coal combustion, biomass burning, cooking, and SOA which shared same markers in the two methods are in fair to good agreement between the two methods, with the relative biases ranging from 2.2% to 17.3%. The average contributions of sulfate and nitrate sources are more sensitive to the choice of model because inorganic ions were not inputted directly into the OM-CMB. The temporal variations of PM2.5 contributions from sulfate, nitrate, SOA, gasoline vehicles, and biomass burning, characterized by unique markers and low collinearity, were in good agreement between the OM-CMB and IOM-CMB results with the Pearson's r above 0.91 (p < 0.01). However, resuspended dust estimates from OM-CMB had a relatively weak correlation with that from IOM-CMB (Pearson's r = 0.73, p < 0.01), due to the different tracers used. When replacing the source profile for industrial coal combustion with that for residential sources, the contributions of resuspended dust and residential coal combustion were higher, and the contributions of other sources were lower compared with the result for the industrial coal combustion. Different source profiles for gasoline vehicles showed considerable sensitivity of the model to the choice of source profile, even when using data from within a single emissions study. Our results emphasize the value of combining inorganic and organic tracers in minimizing error, and in using up-to-date locally-relevant source profiles in source apportionment of PM.

Original languageEnglish
Article number119477
Number of pages13
JournalAtmospheric Environment
Volume294
Early online date14 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China ( 41977181 ), and Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by Tianjin, China ( TJSQNTJ-2018-04 ). RMH and ZS are supported by Natural Environment Research Council, United Kingdom ( NE/N007190/1 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

Keywords

  • particulate matter
  • source apportionment
  • CMB based on organic markers only (OM-CMB)
  • CMB based on a combination of organic and inorganic markers (IOM-CMB)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Atmospheric Science

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