Characterization and sources of PAHs in an urban river system in Beijing, China

Abstract

Water samples from 20 locations on rivers in the Tongzhou District of Beijing were collected four times from July 2005 to March 2006. In addition, sediment samples were collected in July 2005. All samples were analyzed for 16 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) priority pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The concentration, distribution, seasonal variation, and sources of the 16 PAH compounds identified in the water samples, suspended particles, and surface sediments were then evaluated. The concentrations of PAHs in the water and suspended particle and surface sediment samples ranged from 87.3 to 1,890 ng l(-1), 1,330 to 27,700 ng g(-1), and 156 to 8,650 ng g(-1), respectively. These results demonstrated that rivers in the Tongzhou District of Beijing had a high level of PAH pollution, especially in the suspended particles. The highest and lowest concentrations of PAHs in the water samples were observed in summer and spring. However, the seasonal variations in the concentration of PAHs in the suspended particles were more complicated. The dominant compounds in the water, suspended particle, and surface sediment samples were two-, three- and four-ring PAH compounds, respectively. Ratio analysis illustrated that fuel-burning was the primary source of PAHs in the study area. Gasoline, diesel, coal, and coke oven sources were identified and the contributions of the different fuel-burning sources were then calculated using factor analysis and multiple linear regression. These analyses revealed that coal combustion, gasoline combustion plus coke oven emission, and diesel combustion accounted for 38.8%, 38.5%, and 22.7% of the PAHs in suspended particles, respectively.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in wastewater, WWTPs effluents and in the recipient waters of Beijing, China

“…High PAH levels have been previously reported for streams in Tianjin (Shi et al 2005;Qi et al 2011). The occurrence and characterization of PAHs have also been reported in urban river systems in Beijing (Zhang et al 2004;Shen et al 2009). Fuel and biomass combustion, coke ovens, etc., are clearly the primary sources of PAHs in the rivers in the Beijing and Tianjin area (Shi et al 2007(Shi et al , 2009).…”

Temporal variation and spatial distribution of PAH in water of Three Gorges Reservoir during the complete impoundment period

“…2), whereas the three-ring and four-ring PAH portions were considerably higher in water from big city CQ and CS than from town or counties in Hubei area. Studies (Hong et al 2012;Shen et al 2009;McCready et al 2000;Boonyatumanond et al 2006) found that the composition of 16 priority PAHs in sediments was at similar percentages for five-and six-ring compounds in both agricultural and urban section in rivers, while the four-ring PAHs were considerably higher in surface sediments in urban section. Hong et al (2012) concluded that PAHs in sediment record urbanization effects on environmental changes.…”

Historical record and source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Lianhuan Lake sediments

“…If PAHs are higher than standard level in our living environment, they may have potential hazard of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, immunotoxicity and genotoxicity on human body (Shen et al 2009;Pathiratne et al 2007;Yan et al 2009). Some PAHs were produced from the accidental spillage of crude and refined oil and generated through incomplete combustion of wood, coal and fossil fuels et al (Zhang et al 1993;Harrison et al 1996).…”