Source Apportionment of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Collected from an Urban Location in Birmingham, U.K.

Abstract

Intensive seasonal sampling campaigns were undertaken at an urban location in Birmingham, U.K., in which high-volume samplers were used to collect particulate-and vapor-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by means of filter papers and polyurethane foam plugs. Eighteen PAH species were determined by reversed-phase HPLC. Additionally, the suspended particle loading of the air was measured gravimetrically. Dichotomous stacked filter units (DSFUs) were run simultaneously with the high-volumes enabling the collection of particulate matter representative of fine (<2.1 µm) and coarse sized (2.1-10 µm) fractions. Filters from the DSFUs were analyzed for 19 metal species [by proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE)], ammonium, elemental carbon, and various anions. Metal and PAH concentrations were observed to be broadly in line with concentrations measured at other urban areas throughout the U.K. Chemical source apportionment studies took the form of principal component analysis (PCA) followed by multi-linear regression analysis (MLRA). This multivariate technique enabled major air pollution source categories to be identified along with the quantitative contributions of pollutant species to each source group. The results demonstrate that a combination of measurements of PAH and inorganic pollutants is a far more powerful tracer of emission sources than PAH data alone. PAH were found to be associated predominantly with emissions from road traffic, although other sources such as fuel oil, coal combustion, and incineration also contribute. Road traffic accounts for 88% of ambient benzo[a]pyrene at our site.

Assessment of aquatic wastewater pollution in a highly industrialized zone with sediment linear alkylbenzenes

“…The average blank concentrations of LABs were below the lowest calibration level, and the recoveries of the target analytes in the spiked blank were 82 AE 20%. The recoveries of the surrogate standard (1-phenyldodecane-d 30 ) in all samples were 86 AE 19%. The measured LAB concentrations were not corrected with the blank concentrations and surrogate standards recoveries.…”

“…Secondary calibration standards containing isomers of C 10 -LABs, C 11 -LABs, C 12 -LABs, and C 13 -LABs except for 1-C n (n ¼ 10-13) were obtained from Procter and Gamble. The internal standards, 1-phenylpentadecane-d 36 , and the surrogate standard, 1-phenyldodecane-d 30 , were both acquired from C/D/N Isotopes. The secondary standards were standardized with the primary standards based on a protocol described previously [8].…”

“…Several previous studies [30][31][32] have reported the utility of multivariate linear regression to apportion sources of organic pollutants in various environmental matrices. The framework (Fig.…”

Source apportionment of the carcinogenic potential of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) associated to airborne PM10 by a PMF model

“…On the literature high factor loadings for BbF, BkF were attributed to diesel motor vehicle emissions (Lee et al 2004;Harrison et al 1996). However, IcdP, BaP and BaA were attributed to gasoline and diesel markers (Lee et al 2004;Zhang et al 2012;Sofowote et al 2008;Harrison et al 1996). This factor could be related with vehicular emissions and 78% bootstrapped factors mapped to base factor.…”

“…3). These compounds have been described by different authors as coal combustion source markers (Harrison et al 1996;Simcik et al 1999;Sofowote et al 2011). 98% of the bootstrapped factor mapped to the base factor.…”