Pollution levels, composition characteristics and sources of atmospheric PM2.5 in a rural area of the North China Plain during winter.

ABSTRACT

The pollution levels, composition characteristics and sources of atmospheric PM2.5 were investigated based on field measurement at a rural site in the North China Plain (NCP) from pre-heating period to heating period in winter of 2017. The hourly average concentrations of PM2.5 frequently exceeded 150 µg/m3 and even achieved 400 µg/m3, indicating that the PM2.5 pollution was still very serious despite the implementation of stricter control measures in the rural area. Compared with the pre-heating period, the mean concentrations of organic carbon (OC), element carbon (EC) and chlorine ion (Cl-) during the heating period increased by 20.8%, 36.6% and 38.8%, accompanying with increments of their proportions in PM2.5 from 37.5%, 9.8% and 5.5% to 42.9%, 12.7% and 7.2%, respectively. The significant increase of both their concentrations and proportions during the heating period was mainly ascribed to the residential coal combustion. The proportions of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium respectively increased from 9.9%, 10.9% and 9.0% in nighttime to 13.8%, 16.2% and 11.1% in daytime, implying that the daytime photochemical reactions made remarkable contributions to the secondary inorganic aerosols. The simulation results from WRF-Chem revealed that the emission of residential coal combustion in the rural area was underestimated by the current emission inventory. Six sources identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF) based on the measurement were residential coal combustion, secondary formation of inorganic aerosols, biomass burning, vehicle emission and raising dust, contributing to atmospheric PM2.5 of 40.5%, 21.2%, 16.4%, 10.8%, 8.6% and 2.5%, respectively.