Characteristics and Source Analysis of Trace Elements in PM2.5 in the Urban Atmosphere of Wuhan in Spring

Abstract

The concentrations of PM 2.5 and trace elements with hourly resolution were measured during May 2014 in urban residential area of Wuhan, the biggest city in central China. During the period of measurement, the average temperature was approximate 25°C without domestic heating and cooling. The average concentration of PM 2.5 was 95.53 µg m -3 , which was higher than the limit of Ambient Air Quality Standard of China GB3095-2012 (75 µg m -3 , Level 2). A sand storm original from Northwestern China was also recorded. Concentrations of major trace elements (K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Pd, Ag, Cd, Au, Hg, Pb, Co, Sn, Sb, Tl) were comparable to previous studies, except for Ba and Ca with more than doubled concentrations (103 ng m -3 , 1,792.49 ng m -3 ) due to the storm. Enrichment Factor (EF) and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) were employed to characterize the emission sources. The computation of EF showed that Zincs was highly enriched. Four sources, biomass burning (63.2%) might mainly related to power plants using biowaste burning and bio-related cooking activities, metallurgical and steel industries (14%), dust crustal (12.5%) and dust associated with vehicular traffic (10.4%), were identified in decreasing order of average percentage contribution to the PM 2.5 mass with the aid of trace elements. The orientations of emission sources were also addressed.

Heavy air pollution with a unique “non-stagnant” atmospheric boundary layer in the Yangtze River middle basin aggravated by regional transport of PM<sub>2.5</sub> over China

“…Wuhan, a metropolis located in the YRMB, has confronted environmental problems associated with urban air pollution, especially the heavy PM 2.5 pollution events that occur frequently in the winter (Gong et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2017). Local emissions of air pollutants from urban transportation, industrial exhaust, and bio-combustion play an important role in the YRMB urban air pollution (Acciai et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2015). Previous observational and modeling studies on air pollution in this area have been conducted (Wu et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2019).…”

Research Progress of HP Characteristics, Hazards, Control Technologies, and Measures in China after 2013

“…The proportion of traffic (16%) was equal to the sum of coal burning (15%) and industrial factors (1%), and was double other sources (8%) and quadruple biomass burning (4%). After 2013, not only the contribution rates of secondary source (18%) and dust (18%) occupied an important position, but also that of traffic and industrial factors climbed to 18% and 21%, changing into another two important pollution sources [61,[114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122]. The percentage of coal burning dropped to 10%, while that of biomass burning (8%) was twice as much as before, equal to other sources and the largest in the same category in China.…”

Airborne Emissions from Mn Ferroalloy Production

“…Current trends in air quality studies include the use of low-cost online instruments for PM, e.g., micro sensing units (MSUs) with real-time instruments for chemical analysis, real-time analysis software, and concurrent use of weather stations. [159][160][161][162] A study in Cantabria in Spain showed that Mn levels were above normal at about 1.5 km away from the plant, but the Mn detected further away was not from the smelter. 149 Another study in Cantabria 147 described the physiochemical characteristics of PM 10 and deposition samples close to the plant.…”