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Article10.1021/acs.est.5b01944

Source Apportionment of Elemental Carbon in Beijing, China: Insights from Radiocarbon and Organic Marker Measurements

Yanlin Zhang,Jürgen Schnelle‐Kreis,Gülcin Abbaszade,Ralf Zimmermann,Peter Zotter,Rongrong Shen+4 more-2015-06-26-Environmental Science & Technology
118

TL;DRAbstract

Elemental carbon (EC) or black carbon (BC) in the atmosphere has a strong influence on both climate and human health. In this study, radiocarbon ((14)C) based source apportionment is used to distinguish between fossil fuel and biomass burning sources of EC isolated from aerosol filter samples collected in Beijing from June 2010 to May 2011. The (14)C results demonstrate that EC is consistently dominated by fossil-fuel combustion throughout the whole year with a mean contribution of 79% ± 6% (ranging from 70% to 91%), though EC has a higher mean and peak concentrations in the cold season. The seasonal molecular pattern of hopanes (i.e., a class of organic markers mainly emitted during the combustion of different fossil fuels) indicates that traffic-related emissions are the most important fossil source in the warm period and coal combustion emissions are significantly increased in the cold season. By combining (14)C based source apportionment results and picene (i.e., an organic marker

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Elemental carbon (EC) or black carbon (BC) in the atmosphere has a strong influence on both climate and human health. In this study, radiocarbon ((14)C) based source apportionment is used to distinguish between fossil fuel and biomass burning sources of EC isolated from aerosol filter samples collected in Beijing from June 2010 to May 2011. The (14)C results demonstrate that EC is consistently dominated by fossil-fuel combustion throughout the whole year with a mean contribution of 79% ± 6% (ranging from 70% to 91%), though EC has a higher mean and peak concentrations in the cold season. The seasonal molecular pattern of hopanes (i.e., a class of organic markers mainly emitted during the combustion of different fossil fuels) indicates that traffic-related emissions are the most important fossil source in the warm period and coal combustion emissions are significantly increased in the cold season. By combining (14)C based source apportionment results and picene (i.e., an organic marker

Keywords

ApportionmentBeijingRadiocarbon datingTotal organic carbonEnvironmental scienceEnvironmental chemistryCarbon fibersChina

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