Quantifying the impact of residential heating on the urban air quality in a typical European coal combustion region.

The present investigation, carried out as a case study in a typical major city situated in a European coal combustion region (Krakow, Poland), aims at quantifying the impact on the urban air quality of residential heating by coal combustion in comparison with other potential pollution sources such as power plants, industry, and traffic. Emissions were measured for 20 major sources, including small stoves and boilers, and the particulate matter (PM) was analyzed for 52 individual compounds together with outdoor and indoor PM10 collected during typical winter pollution episodes. The data were analyzed using chemical mass balance modeling (CMB) and constrained positive matrix factorization (CMF) yielding source apportionments for PM10, B(a)P, and other regulated air pollutants namely Cd, Ni, As, and Pb. The results are potentially very useful for planning abatement strategies in all areas of the world, where coal combustion in small appliances is significant. During the studied pollution episodes in Krakow, European air quality limits were exceeded with up to a factor 8 for PM10 and up to a factor 200 for B(a)P. The levels of these air pollutants were accompanied by high concentrations of azaarenes, known markers for inefficient coal combustion. The major culprit for the extreme pollution levels was demonstrated to be residential heating by coal combustion in small stoves and boilers (>50% for PM10 and >90% B(a)P), whereas road transport (<10% for PM10 and <3% for B(a)P), and industry (4-15% for PM10 and <6% for B(a)P) played a lesser role. The indoor PM10 and B(a)P concentrations were at high levels similar to those of outdoor concentrations and were found to have the same sources as outdoors. The inorganic secondary aerosol component of PM10 amounted to around 30%, which for a large part may be attributed to the industrial emission of the precursors SO2 and NOx.

Effect of water/fuel emulsions and a cerium-based combustion improver additive on HD and LD diesel exhaust emissions.

One of the major technological challenges for the transport sector is to cut emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) simultaneously from diesel vehicles to meet future emission standards and to reduce their contribution to the pollution of ambient air. Installation of particle filters in all existing diesel vehicles (for new vehicles, the feasibility is proven) is an efficient but expensive and complicated solution; thus other short-term alternatives have been proposed. It is well known that water/diesel (W/ D) emulsions with up to 20% water can reduce PM and NOx emissions in heavy-duty (HD) engines. The amount of water that can be used in emulsions for the technically more susceptible light-duty (LD) vehicles is much lower, due to risks of impairing engine performance and durability. The present study investigates the potential emission reductions of an experimental 6% W/D emulsion with EURO-3 LD diesel vehicles in comparison to a commercial 12% W/D emulsion with a EURO-3 HD engine and to a Cerium-based combustion improver additive. For PM, the emulsions reduced the emissions with -32% for LD vehicles (mass/km) and -59% for the HD engine (mass/ kWh). However, NOx emissions remained unchanged, and emissions of other pollutants were actually increased forthe LD vehicles with +26% for hydrocarbons (HC), +18% for CO, and +25% for PM-associated benzo[a]pyrene toxicity equivalents (TEQ). In contrast, CO (-32%), TEQ (-14%), and NOx (-6%) were reduced by the emulsion for the HD engine, and only hydrocarbons were slightly increased (+16%). Whereas the Cerium-based additive was inefficient in the HD engine for all emissions except for TEQ (-39%), it markedly reduced all emissions for the LD vehicles (PM -13%, CO -18%, HC -26%, TEQ -25%) except for NOx, which remained unchanged. The presented data indicate a strong potential for reductions in PM emissions from current diesel engines by optimizing the fuel composition.