Residential Coal Combustion as a Source of Levoglucosan in China

Levoglucosan (LG) has been widely identified as a specific marker for biomass burning (BB) sources and frequently utilized in estimating the BB contribution to atmospheric fine particles all over the world. However, this study provides direct evidence to show that coal combustion (CC) is also a source of LG, especially in the wintertime in Northern China, based on both source testing and ambient measurement. Our results show that low-temperature residential CC could emit LG with emission factors (EF) ranging from 0.3 to 15.9 mg kg^-1. Ratios of LG to its isomers, mannosan and galactosan, differ between CC and BB emissions, and the wintertime ratios in Beijing ambient PM_2.5 and source-specific tracers including carbon isotopic signatures all indicated a significant contribution from CC to ambient levoglucosan in winter in Beijing. The results suggest that LG cannot be used as a distinct source marker for biomass burning in special cases such as some cities in the northern China, where coal is still widely used in the residential and industrial sectors. Biomass burning sources could be overestimated, although such an over-estimation could vary spatially and temporally.