PM_1.0 marker-based diagnostic ratios and PMF-based source apportionment for quantifying oxidative potential in a...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry
• Atmospheric Science
• Air Pollution Analysis

Background:

• Combustion sources emit hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), complicating the isolation of specific contributions to ambient PM1.0.
• Accurate source apportionment of PM1.0 is crucial for understanding and mitigating air pollution impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a diagnostic framework for identifying and quantifying combustion sources of PM1.0 using molecular markers and positive matrix factorization (PMF).
• To differentiate contributions from PET waste combustion, wood waste combustion, and coal combustion.

Main Methods:

• Collected PM1.0 samples at 6-hour resolution in western Korea, analyzing chemical composition, PAHs (including picene), molecular markers (levoglucosan, mannosan, terephthalic acid, etc.), and oxidative potential (QDTT-OP).
• Applied positive matrix factorization (PMF) to resolve source contributions.
• Developed a PMF-constrained diagnostic framework using picene-normalized ratios and a composite marker (LMT*) to categorize PAHs (L-PAHs and H-PAHs).

Main Results:

• PMF identified PET waste combustion (28.8%) and wood waste combustion (18.1%) as dominant sources, with coal combustion contributing 4.1% to PM1.0 mass.
• Elevated picene levels and higher QDTT-OP correlated with combustion-dominated air masses.
• Proposed screening thresholds successfully differentiated between coal, PET, and wood waste combustion based on marker ratios.

Conclusions:

• PET and wood waste combustion are significant sources of PM1.0 and associated PAHs in the study area.
• The developed diagnostic framework provides effective tools for source apportionment of combustion-related air pollution.
• Understanding these sources is vital for targeted air quality management strategies.