Characteristics and Source Apportionment of Metallic Elements in PM2.5 at Urban and Suburban Sites in Beijing: Implication of Emission Reduction

Abstract

To gain insights into the impacts of emission reduction measures on the characteristics and sources of trace elements during the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, PM2.5 samples were simultaneously collected from an urban site and a suburban site in Beijing from September 15th to November 12th, and fifteen metallic elements were analyzed, including five crustal elements (Mg, Al, K, Ca and Fe), nine trace metals (V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Ag, Cd and Pb) and As. Most of the trace metals (V, Cr, Mn, As, Cd and Pb) decreased more than 40% due to the emission regulations during APEC, while the crustal elements decreased considerably (4–45%). Relative to the daytime, trace metals increased during the nighttime at both sites before the APEC summit, but no significant difference was observed during the APEC summit, suggesting suppressed emissions from anthropogenic activities. Five sources (dust, traffic exhaust, industrial sources, coal and oil combustion and biomass burning) were resolved using positive matrix factorization (PMF), which were collectively decreased by 30.7% at the urban site and 14.4% at the suburban site during the APEC summit. Coal and oil combustion regulations were the most effective for reducing the trace elements concentrations (urban site: 63.1%; suburban site: 52.0%), followed by measures to reduce traffic exhaust (52.8%) at the urban site and measures to reduce biomass burning (37.7%) at the suburban site. Our results signify that future control efforts of metallic elements in megacities like Beijing should prioritize coal and oil combustion, as well as traffic emissions.

Potential health risks of inhaled toxic elements and risk sources during different COVID-19 lockdown stages in Linfen, China

“…The third factor had relatively high concentrations of Cl − , OC, and EC, and low concentrations of Al, K, Mg, and Na, which were accompanied by narrow DISP intervals. These elements are distinctive tracers of coal combustion ( Deng et al, 2014 ; Khan et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). The fourth factor was interpreted as vehicle emissions, because it featured high explained variations of EC and Zn with narrow DISP intervals, and high concentration and explained variation of OC with wider DISP interval.…”

Insight into PM<sub>2.5</sub> sources by applying positive matrix factorization (PMF) at urban and rural sites of Beijing

“…The selection of species used as input data for the PMF analysis is important and can significantly influence the model results (Lim et al, 2010). The following set of criteria was used for the selection of the input species: signal-to-noise ratio (S / N) (Paatero and Hopke, 2003), major PM chemical species, compounds with maximum data points above the detection limit, and those being considered specific markers of a given source (e.g.…”

Substance Flow Analysis of Zinc in Two Preheater–Precalciner Cement Plants and the Associated Atmospheric Emissions

“…Trace elements in the Earth's surface system are critical to livestock wellbeing due to their biological functions or toxicities [1]. The abundance of trace elements in the ambient environment is affected by both natural and anthropogenic sources [2,3]. In modern society, human activities are more extensive than at any previous time in the Earth's history and have deeply influenced the biogeocycling of trace metals [4][5][6].…”