Emission characteristics of particle matter, BC and VOCs from typical air pollution sources

Abstract

To understand the emission characteristics of particulate matter (PM), black carbon (BC), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from different pollution sources, in-situ measurements of the PM, BC, and VOCs concentrations as well as the size distributions of particle number and mass concentrations were conducted under the conditions of residential coal burning flue gas, cooking smoke, and construction dust. The results showed that there were obvious differences among different pollution sources in the PM, BC, and VOCs concentrations, the distribution of particle number and mass concentrations, and the correlations between different pollutants. For coal burning flue gas and construction dust, the PM mass mainly existed in coarse particles and there was significant increase in the number concentrations of both fine and coarse particles. However, in the cooking smoke, the particle mass mainly distributed in micron particles and the number concentrations of particles around one micrometer exhibited a sharp increase. In addition, BC and VOCs in the coal burning flue gas and cooking smoke were mainly produced from burning and heating processes. Their concentrations showed significant positive correlation with number concentrations of fine particles, suggesting they were emitted accompanying by fine particles. Nevertheless, as to construction dust, most BC came from construction machinery exhausts and fugitive dust. The BC concentration was strongly corelated with both fine and coarse particles, implying they were released with various particles. Overall, the emission characteristics of PM, BC, and VOCs from the above three sources provide basis for source identification of air pollution.

Keywords

• pm
• bc
• vocs
• particle size distribution
• emission characteristics