The use of levoglucosan for tracing biomass burning in PM2.5 samples in Tuscany (Italy)

Giannoni, M.; Martellini, Tania; Bubba, Massimo Del; Gambaro, Andrea; Zangrando, Roberta; Chiari, M.; Lepri, Luciano; Cincinelli, Alessandra

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2012.03.016

Cited by 99 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…According with previous investigations (see Table 3), levoglucosan concentrations measured in Granada are in the lower range of values reported for other urban areas like Aveiro , Graz (Caseiro et al, 2009) or Florence (Giannoni et al, 2012); but higher than the observed concentrations in The Netherlands (Jedynska et al, 2015), Vienna and Salzburg (Caseiro et al, 2009), London (Fuller et al, 2014) or Barcelona (Reche et al, 2012), among others. Winter OC and EC mass concentrations in Granada (Table 2) were significantly higher compared with the values listed in Table 3, leading to lower levoglucosan/OC ratios.…”

Section: Biomass Burning Tracersmentioning

confidence: 86%

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Titos

Águila

Cazorla

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomass burning (BB) is a significant source of atmospheric particles in many parts of the world. Whereas many studies have demonstrated the importance of BB emissions in central and northern Europe, especially in rural areas, its impact in urban air quality of southern European countries has been sparsely investigated. In this study, highly time resolved multi-wavelength absorption coefficients together with levoglucosan (BB tracer) mass concentrations were combined to apportion carbonaceous aerosol sources. TheAethalometer model takes advantage of the different spectral behaviour of BB and fossil fuel (FF) combustion aerosols. The model was found to be more sensitive to the assumed value of the aerosol Ångström exponent (AAE) for FF (AAEff) than to the AAE for BB (AAEbb). As result of various sensitivity tests the model was optimized with AAEff = 1.1 and AAEbb = 2. The Aethalometer model and levoglucosan tracer estimates were in good agreement. The Aethalometer model was further applied to data from three sites in Granada urban area to evaluate the spatial variation of CMff and CMbb (carbonaceous matter from FF or BB origin, respectively) concentrations within the city. The results showed that CMbb was lower in the city centre while it has an unexpected profound impact on the CM levels measured in the suburbs (about 40%). Analysis of BB tracers with respect to wind speed suggested that BB was dominated by sources outside the city, to the west in a rural area. Distinguishing whether it corresponds to agricultural waste burning or with biomass burning for domestic heating was not possible. This study also shows that although traffic restrictions measures contribute to reduce carbonaceous concentrations, the extent of the reduction is very local. Other sources such as BB, which can contribute to CM as much as traffic emissions, should be targeted to reduce air pollution.

show abstract

Section: Biomass Burning Tracersmentioning

confidence: 86%

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Titos

Águila

Cazorla

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…and WSOC) and light absorption at 365 nm (Abs 365 ) Reche et al, 2012 (Zhang et al, 2008Giannoni et al, 2012;Zhu et al, 2015) and similar to those of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dicarboxylic acids and other major water soluble ions associated with particulate matter observed in this region in different years Xu et al, 2012a;Wu et al, 2014Wu et al, , 2015aWu et al, , 2015b. As discussed previously, the seasonal pattern can be partly explained by the transport of air masses from upwind sources under the influence of the East Asian monsoons.…”

Section: Source Apportionment Analysismentioning

confidence: 77%

“…However, there still exist large uncertainties in biomass burning emission estimates due to the incomplete and incomprehensive collection of activity data and variable emission factors depending on moisture, type of vegetation and burning conditions (smouldering or flaming), wind direction and other meteorological factors (Streets et al, 2003;Bond et al, 2004;He et al, 2011;Oanh et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2013aZhang et al, , 2013b. Since these difficulties exist in the establishment of a reliable emission inventory for biomass burning, individual source tracers including levoglucosan (1,6-anhydro-b-D-glucopyranose; LG) and water soluble K ' and receptor modelling methods are often used to assess biomass burning contributions to PM 2.5 (Zhang et al, 2008Sang et al, 2011;Giannoni et al, 2012;Reche et al, 2012;Mkoma et al, 2013;Ho et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomass burning contributions to urban PM<sub>2.5</sub> along the coastal lines of southeastern China

Wu¹,

Zhang²,

Schwab³

et al. 2016

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A B S T R A C T Levoglucosan (LG), water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and potassium (K '), and the light absorption at 365 nm (Abs 365 ) of the extracted WSOC are measured in PM 2.5 samples collected from November 2011 to July 2013 at four coastal urban sites in southeast China (Fuzhou, Putian, Quanzhou and Xiamen). These species are markers of biomass burning and used to determine the contributions of biomass burning to the PM 2.5 burden in these locations. LG and WSOC concentrations exhibited a clear seasonal pattern, with a large enhancement in winter and spring and a minimum in summer, and annual means across all sites of 59.2946.8 ng m (3 and 2.6991.21 mg C m (3 , respectively. The distinctive seasonal patterns of LG and WSOC are more explained by the East Asian monsoon than the upwind varying emission sources according to the HYSPLIT backward trajectories and MODIS fire spots. Observations produced significant correlation (at the p B0.01 level) between LG and non-sea salt K ' (nss-K ' ) at each site, but the correlations exhibited no clear seasonal trend. The LG/nss-K ' ratios ranged from 0.0390.01 to 0.2490.13 which lay within the limits for the crop residues and/or grass combustion smoke. Stronger correlations were found between WSOC or Abs 365 and sulphate than between WSOC and LG. This observation is consistent with the fact that biomass burning is a less important contributor to WSOC and/or brown carbon than is secondary organic aerosol formation and oxidation. The average relative contributions of biomass burning to OC and WSOC in PM 2.5 were 8.3 and 15.2 %, respectively, estimated by the measured LG to OC and WSOC (LG/OC and LG/WSOC) ratios in comparison to literature-derived LG/OC and LG/WSOC values for biomass burning smoke. Using the reported conversion factor of LG to PM 2.5 for crop straw burning smoke, the LG-estimated PM 2.5 contributions from biomass burning exhibited minimum values in summer and higher values in winter and spring. Positive Matrix Factorisation was used to analyse PM 2.5 sources, and seven major source factors including biomass burning emissions were resolved. The biomass burning sources contributed 3.75Á8.08 % to PM 2.5 mass as an annual average while exhibiting a seasonal variability similar to and higher than those of LG-estimated contributions. These results demonstrate that the contribution from biomass burning smoke to PM 2.5 Á while small Á is non-negligible, especially in the winter and spring sampling periods, that is, northeastern monsoon season.

show abstract

“…Levoglucosan can be utilized in the synthesis of chiral polymers such as non-hydrolysable glucose polymers and many new compounds [13][14][15]. Levoglucosan is often used as a chemical tracer for biomass burning in atmospheric chemistry studies [16][17][18], particularly with respect to airborne particulate matter. Unfortunately, as presently available, pure levoglucosan is very expensive because the yields of levoglucosan are very low.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation and formation mechanism of levoglucosan from starch using a tubular furnace pyrolysis reactor

Yang

Liu

Yang

et al. 2013

Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tTubular furnace pyrolysis reactor for the production of organic liquids from biomass has been demonstrated at a pilot-scale of 500 g/batch of dry feed at a temperature of 360-420• C. Treatment of starch gives high yields of 1,6-anhydro-␤-d-glucopyranose (levoglucosan, LG). The yield depends on the heater temperature and the vacuum pressure in the reactor. The maximum yield of levoglucosan from corn starch is about 56% (analytical value) at ultimate pressure of 6 × 10 −2 Pa, pumping speed of 15 L/s and temperature of 390• C. Under the same conditions, the products of levoglucosan pyrolysis are exactly the same as starch pyrolysis. Based on these experimental results and further thermal analysis, a new pyrolysis mechanism is provided and discussed.

show abstract

The use of levoglucosan for tracing biomass burning in PM2.5 samples in Tuscany (Italy)

Cited by 99 publications

References 34 publications

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Biomass burning contributions to urban PM<sub>2.5</sub> along the coastal lines of southeastern China

Preparation and formation mechanism of levoglucosan from starch using a tubular furnace pyrolysis reactor

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About