Fossil fuel-related emissions were the major source of NH3 pollution in urban cities of northern China in the autumn of 2017

Zhang, Zhongyi; Zeng, Yang; Zheng, Nengjian; Luo, Li; Xiao, Hao; Xiao, Huayun

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113428

Cited by 70 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Due to the lack of gas-phase data of HNO 3 , the ISORROPIA-II thermodynamic model was used to simulate the partition of gaseous HNO 3 in the present study, which works well in the prediction of gas-to-particle partitioning of inorganic NO 3 − /NH 4 + /Cl − in our previous study (Zhang et al, 2017). In the present study, the ISORRAPIA model was run iteratively until the simulated NH 4 + and NO 3 − very close to the analyzed values of fine particle, and the method can be obtained elsewhere (Zhang et al, 2017).…”

Section: Simulation Of N 2 O 5 No 3 Oh and Ho 2 Radicals And Gasmentioning

confidence: 86%

Differentiation Between Nitrate Aerosol Formation Pathways in a Southeast Chinese City by Dual Isotope and Modeling Studies

et al. 2020

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Nitrate (NO3−), one of the most important inorganic aerosols in the atmosphere, is mainly formed by oxidation of NOx by the hydroxyl radical (OH) and ozone (O3) in urban atmospheres. However, the fractional contributions of its various oxidation pathways remain unclear. Here, we collected particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) samples in a second‐tier city in southeast China from 1 September to 31 December 2017 and measured the NO3− and nitrate isotopic compositions (δ15N and δ18O). The average concentration of NO3−, δ15N, and δ18O values were 14.7 ± 11.6 μg/m3, (+4.3 ± 4.3)‰, and (+71.8 ± 14.7)‰ with the ranges from 0.8 to 57.7 μg/m3, −10.5‰ to +12.5‰ and +34.5‰ to +91.9‰, respectively. All three species were significantly higher in winter than in summer. Based on a Bayesian mixing model with a dual isotope array for NO3−, contributions of (37.1 ± 33.4)%, (60.3 ± 32.2)%, and (2.6 ± 2.7)% to NO3− could be attributed to OH oxidation, N2O5 hydrolysis, and NO3 + hydrocarbon (HC) pathways, respectively. Higher OH radical concentrations with higher ratios of OH to O3 led to lower NO3− concentrations, while lower OH radical concentrations with higher ratios of O3 to OH led to higher contributions of N2O5 hydrolysis, forming higher NO3− concentrations in winter. Under low OH, an increased O3 to NOx ratio increased the contribution of the NO3 + HC pathway. The comprehensive analysis of the isotopic compositions of nitrate helped identify the importance of major oxidation pathways of NOx in this city.

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Section: Simulation Of N 2 O 5 No 3 Oh and Ho 2 Radicals And Gasmentioning

confidence: 86%

Differentiation Between Nitrate Aerosol Formation Pathways in a Southeast Chinese City by Dual Isotope and Modeling Studies

et al. 2020

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“…+ (Pan et al, 2016;Pan et al, 2018a;Pan et al, 2018b;Berner and Felix, 2020;Xiao et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020c) to resolve measured δ 15 N(NH 3 ) value or initial δ 15 N (NH 3 ) value derived from δ 15 N(NH 4 + ) value in urban atmosphere. Other studies have assumed four main sources of NH 3 or NH 4…”

Section: Source Categories and Their Isotopic Composition Values In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…+ (Chang et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2018;Chang et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019a;Wu et al, 2019b;Bhattarai et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020a;Zhang et al, 2020b;Zhang et al, 2020c) in ambient atmosphere (see Supplementary data in Tables A1 and A2).…”

Section: Source Categories and Their Isotopic Composition Values In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their study and an earlier study from Felix et al (2014) highlighted the importance of fossil fuel related sources (e.g., vehicular exhaust, NH 3 slip from Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) equipped power plants, and coal combustion) based on isotope-based source apportionment of δ 15 N(NH 4 + ) and δ 15 N(NH 3 ) values, respectively. Thereafter a number of studies suggested that fossil fuel related sources may be an important source of NH 4 + and NH 3 in urban atmosphere in China based on source apportionment of δ 15 N(NH 4 + ) values (Liu et al, 2018;Pan et al, 2018a;Wu et al, 2019a;Wu et al, 2019b;Bhattarai et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020;Xiao et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020c) and δ 15 N(NH 3 ) values (Chang et al, 2016;Chang et al, 2019;Bhattarai et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020a;Zhang et al, 2020b), respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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δ15N-stable isotope analysis of NHx: An overview on analytical measurements, source sampling and its source apportionment

Bhattarai

Pan

Tian

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

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Agricultural sources and non-agricultural emissions contribute to gaseous ammonia (NH 3) that plays a vital role in severe haze formation. Qualitative and quantitative contributions of these sources to ambient PM 2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic equivalent diameter below 2.5 µm) concentrations remains uncertain. Stable nitrogen isotopic composition (δ 15 N) of NH 3 and NH 4 + (δ 15 N(NH 3) and δ 15 N(NH 4 +), respectively) can yield valuable information about its sources and associated processes. This review provides an overview of the recent progress in analytical techniques for δ 15 N(NH 3) and δ 15 N(NH 4 +) measurement, sampling of atmospheric NH 3 and NH 4 + in the ambient air and their sources signature (e.g., agricultural vs. fossil fuel), and isotope-based source apportionment of NH 3 in urban atmosphere. This study highlights that collecting sample that are fully representative of emission sources remains a challenge in fingerprinting δ 15 N(NH 3) values of NH 3 emission sources. Furthermore, isotopic fractionation during NH 3 gas-to-particle conversion under varying ambient field conditions (e.g., relative humidity, particle pH, temperature) remains unclear, which indicates more field and laboratory studies to validate theoretically predicted isotopic fractionation are required. Thus, this study concludes that lack of refined δ 15 N(NH 3) fingerprints and full understanding of isotopic fractionation during aerosol formation in a laboratory and field conditions is a limitation for isotope-based source apportionment of NH 3. More experimental work (in chamber studies) and theoretical estimations in combinations of field verification are necessary in characterizing isotopic fractionation under various environmental and atmospheric neutralization conditions, which would help to better interpret isotopic data and our understanding on NH x (NH 3 + NH 4 +) dynamics in the atmosphere.

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“…First, 1/8 of each PM2.5 sample filter was cut using ceramic scissors and was placed in a separate clean 50 mL centrifuge tube; 50 mL of ultrapure water was added to each centrifuge tube [26]. Each tube containing a sample was incubated for 30 min under ultrasonication and then shaken for 30 min with a shaker, then, the tubes were centrifuged for 10 min with 2000 revolutions per minute.…”

Section: Chemical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Characteristics of Major Inorganic Ions in PM2.5 Based on Year-Long Observations in Guiyang, Southwest China—Implications for Formation Pathways and the Influences of Regional Transport

Xiao

Zhang

et al. 2020

Atmosphere

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Sulfate, nitrate and ammonium (SNA) are the dominant components of water-soluble ions (WSIs) in PM2.5, which are of great significance for understanding the sources and transformation mechanisms of PM2.5. In this study, daily PM2.5 samples were collected from September 2017 to August 2018 within the Guiyang urban area and the concentrations of the major WSIs in the PM2.5 samples were characterized. The results showed that the average concentration of SNA (SO42−, NO3−, NH4+) was 15.01 ± 9.35 μg m−3, accounting for 81.05% (48.71–93.76%) of the total WSIs and 45.33% (14.25–82.43%) of the PM2.5 and their possible chemical composition in PM2.5 was (NH4)2SO4 and NH4NO3. The highest SOR (sulfur oxidation ratio) was found in summer, which was mainly due to the higher temperature and O3 concentrations, while the lowest NOR (nitrogen oxidation ratio) found in summer may ascribe to the volatilization of nitrates being accelerated at higher temperature. Furthermore, the nitrate formation was more obvious in NH4+-rich environments so reducing NH3 emissions could effectively control the formation of nitrate. The results of the trajectory cluster analysis suggested that air pollutants can be easily enriched over short air mass trajectories from local emission sources, affecting the chemical composition of PM2.5.

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Fossil fuel-related emissions were the major source of NH3 pollution in urban cities of northern China in the autumn of 2017

Cited by 70 publications

References 58 publications

Differentiation Between Nitrate Aerosol Formation Pathways in a Southeast Chinese City by Dual Isotope and Modeling Studies

Differentiation Between Nitrate Aerosol Formation Pathways in a Southeast Chinese City by Dual Isotope and Modeling Studies

δ15N-stable isotope analysis of NHx: An overview on analytical measurements, source sampling and its source apportionment

Chemical Characteristics of Major Inorganic Ions in PM2.5 Based on Year-Long Observations in Guiyang, Southwest China—Implications for Formation Pathways and the Influences of Regional Transport

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