Airborne particulate elemental carbon: Its sources, transport and contribution to dark smoke and soiling

Hamilton, R.; Mansfield, T.A.

doi:10.1016/0960-1686(91)90070-n

Cited by 113 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Black Carbon (BC) is a primary product of incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fuels, normally originated from diesel engines in urban areas (e.g. Hamilton and Mansfield, 1991;Pakkanen et al, 2000). In addition to diesel engines from the traffic sector, biomass burning and domestic heating (based on fossil or biomass fuels) constitute the main sources of BC in the atmosphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Titos

Águila

Cazorla

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

129

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomass burning (BB) is a significant source of atmospheric particles in many parts of the world. Whereas many studies have demonstrated the importance of BB emissions in central and northern Europe, especially in rural areas, its impact in urban air quality of southern European countries has been sparsely investigated. In this study, highly time resolved multi-wavelength absorption coefficients together with levoglucosan (BB tracer) mass concentrations were combined to apportion carbonaceous aerosol sources. TheAethalometer model takes advantage of the different spectral behaviour of BB and fossil fuel (FF) combustion aerosols. The model was found to be more sensitive to the assumed value of the aerosol Ångström exponent (AAE) for FF (AAEff) than to the AAE for BB (AAEbb). As result of various sensitivity tests the model was optimized with AAEff = 1.1 and AAEbb = 2. The Aethalometer model and levoglucosan tracer estimates were in good agreement. The Aethalometer model was further applied to data from three sites in Granada urban area to evaluate the spatial variation of CMff and CMbb (carbonaceous matter from FF or BB origin, respectively) concentrations within the city. The results showed that CMbb was lower in the city centre while it has an unexpected profound impact on the CM levels measured in the suburbs (about 40%). Analysis of BB tracers with respect to wind speed suggested that BB was dominated by sources outside the city, to the west in a rural area. Distinguishing whether it corresponds to agricultural waste burning or with biomass burning for domestic heating was not possible. This study also shows that although traffic restrictions measures contribute to reduce carbonaceous concentrations, the extent of the reduction is very local. Other sources such as BB, which can contribute to CM as much as traffic emissions, should be targeted to reduce air pollution.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Titos

Águila

Cazorla

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

129

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, recent experimental studies (Diaz- Sanchez, 1997, Bayram et al, 1998 highlight the role of diesel exhaust particles in enhancing inflammatory and allergic responses in the respiratory system. As several studies reported strong correlations between elemental carbon (EC) concentrations and diesel vehicle traffic (Delumyea et al, 1980;Keeber, 1990) and documented that the majority of EC emissions in urban environments originate from diesel exhaust engines (Wolff et al, 1985;Hamilton and Mansfield, 1991;Fischer et al, 1997;Gray and Cass, 1998), EC measurements were often used to estimate the contribution of diesel exhaust engines to the particle concentrations. More recently studies showed that nowadays in Western Europe and the US, between 67 and 90% of the atmosphere's content of EC is estimated to be produced by diesel-powered vehicles (Hamilton and Mansfield, 1991;Fischer et al, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As several studies reported strong correlations between elemental carbon (EC) concentrations and diesel vehicle traffic (Delumyea et al, 1980;Keeber, 1990) and documented that the majority of EC emissions in urban environments originate from diesel exhaust engines (Wolff et al, 1985;Hamilton and Mansfield, 1991;Fischer et al, 1997;Gray and Cass, 1998), EC measurements were often used to estimate the contribution of diesel exhaust engines to the particle concentrations. More recently studies showed that nowadays in Western Europe and the US, between 67 and 90% of the atmosphere's content of EC is estimated to be produced by diesel-powered vehicles (Hamilton and Mansfield, 1991;Fischer et al, 1997). Nevertheless, it must be still considered that the contribution of other primary combustion sources such as coal-burning, heating or industry can vary significantly between cities (Fischer et al, 1997;Hies et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison between different traffic-related particle indicators: Elemental carbon (EC), PM2.5 mass, and absorbance

Cyrys

Heinrich

Hoek

et al. 2003

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

209

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Here we compare PM 2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mm) mass and filter absorbance measurements with elemental carbon (EC) concentrations measured in parallel at the same site as well as collocated PM 2.5 and PM 10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 mm) mass and absorbance measurements. The data were collected within the Traffic-Related Air Pollution on Childhood Asthma (TRAPCA) study in Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden. The study was designed to assess the health impact of spatial contrasts in long-term average concentrations. The measurement sites were distributed between background and traffic locations. Annual EC and PM 2.5 absorbance measurements were at traffic sites on average 43-84% and 26-76% higher, respectively, compared to urban background sites. The contrast for PM 2.5 mass measurements was lower (8-35%). The smaller contrast observed for PM 2.5 mass in comparison with PM 2.5 absorbance and EC documents that PM 2.5 mass underestimates exposure contrasts related to motorized traffic emissions. The correlation between PM 10 and PM 2.5 was high, documenting that most of the spatial variation of PM 10 was because of PM 2.5 . The measurement of PM 2.5 absorbance was highly correlated with EC measurements and suggests that absorbance can be used as a simple, inexpensive and non-destructive method to estimate motorized traffic-related particulate air pollution. The EC/absorbance relation differed between countries and site type (background/traffic), supporting the need for site-specific calibrations of the simple absorbance method. While the ratio between PM 2.5 and PM 10 mass ranged from 0.54 to 0.68, the ratio of PM 2.5 absorbance and PM 10 absorbance was 0.96-0.97, indicating that PM 2.5 absorbance captures nearly all of the particle absorbance.

show abstract

“…These are diverse and mostly uncontrolled and include The resuspension of soil by wind and mechanical disturbance [27]. The resuspension of surface dust from roads and urban surfaces by wind, vehicle movements and other local air disturbance [28]. Emissions from activities such as quarrying, road and building construction, and the loading and unloading of dusty materials, [29].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Air Pollution on Archaeological Buildings in Cairo

Khallaf¹

2011

Monitoring, Control and Effects of Air Pollution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Airborne particulate elemental carbon: Its sources, transport and contribution to dark smoke and soiling

Cited by 113 publications

References 30 publications

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Comparison between different traffic-related particle indicators: Elemental carbon (EC), PM2.5 mass, and absorbance

Effect of Air Pollution on Archaeological Buildings in Cairo

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About